
GopigteE?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



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E. P. Ripley 

Charles Schwab 



THE EXECUTIVE 

Woodrow Wilson 

Theodore Roosevelt 

James J. Hill 



Wm, Sunday 
E. H. Gary 



i 



JOSEPH FRENCH JOHNSON, Dean 

MEMBER OF THE ELITE 

HE REPRESENTS THE EXECUTIVE 

AT HIS BEST 



THE EXECUTIVE AND 
HIS CONTROL OF MEN 

A STUDY IN PERSONAL 
EFFICIENCY 



BY 



ENOCH BURTON GOWIN 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF COMMERCE, SCHOOL OF COMMERCE, ACCOUNTS 

AND FINANCE, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY; MEMBER STAFF 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON INSTITUTE 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1915 

All rights reserved 




G^ 



Copyright, 1915, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1915. 



J. 8. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



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r.QT 28 1915 

©CLA416J 14 

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PREFACE 

The very practical need of our times is more execu- 
tive ability. In proportion to the demand for it, such 
ability has always been scarce, and will steadily become 
more so under the rapid growth of organized enterprises 
of every sort. Happily, all of us seek power, be the 
direction what it may ; we are builded for upward striv- 
ing. Since it is only partially true that leaders are born, 
not made, this power-seeking tendency in our nature if 
cultivated may be turned into executive capacity. Such 
result is the chief purpose of this book. 

One must always follow, even while leading ; we are 
never wholly initiators. Whom shall we follow ? In- 
sincerity, shiftiness, and bluster have too often won the 
ear of the foolish and clouded the discerning eye; but 
hurling these epithets indiscriminately at every fresh 
seeker of power just as truly wounds the man of vision 
and exalts the thick-skinned mercenary. Since this study 
lays bare the means by which men control others, one 
is enabled more surely to realize its second aim, the 
wise selection of leaders and rational submission to their 
guidance. The perpetuity of organized life depends 
upon the rise of superior men into positions of author- 
ity, even though it mean oneself, the half-god, must 
withdraw when the god appears. 

The methods described are those which executives 
use, and they use them to get results. Whether the 
results are desirable in the case of any particular execu- 
tive, the reader will decide for himself in view of the 
principles presented in Part III. If these methods em- 
ployed to control men at times seem crude and harsh, 



viii PREFACE 

we must remember they were once more crude and more 
harsh. It is too often that, intent on the ideal, we over- 
look the very real progress already made, usually a case 
of overimpatience delaying its own aim. So in judging 
our leaders and their methods we should adopt the rela- 
tive viewpoint, exacting of them no absolute standards, 
but content if in view of all the attendant circumstances 
they measure up as men. 

Around few questions have more controversy and spec- 
ulation been aroused than the one here treated. It is 
for this reason that in the following pages much con- 
crete material is being presented, since, in charting an 
intricate field such as individual ascendancy, a book of 
deductions is to be feared. As for the product in toto I 
venture to hope that through its influence not a few 
people will work together with increased efficiency. 

In prosecuting these studies, I have become much 
indebted to the hundreds of American executives 
furnishing me data about themselves; to numerous 
biographers to whom credit in the footnotes, on account 
of frequent quotations and their brevity, was not always 
given ; and also to my old friends, Professor Blakey of 
the University of Minnesota, Professor Barnes of the 
Tennessee State Normal School, and Dr. Miles of the 
Carnegie Institution's Nutrition Laboratory, and my 
colleagues, Dr. Grimshaw of New York University and 
Mr. Wahlstad of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, for 
reading the manuscript in proof sheets. Especially am 
I indebted to my wife, faithful heart, efficient worker ; 
and to my old teachers who inspired as they taught. 

E. B. G. 

New York City, 
January 1, 1915. 



CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Chapter I, Executive Ability 3-10 

Its fundamental character. Importance of manage- 
ment. Increased size of management units. Heteroge- 
neity as a test of skill. Progressive peoples demand 
speed in operation. Efficiency as basic requirement. 
Why organizations develop. Conformity to type ; the 
genius and the fool. Periods of stress give birth to 
social saviors. Two types of leaders; executive here 
studied. Plan of treatment. 



PART I. INDIVIDUALITY 

Chapter II. The Source of Personal Power . . 11-21 
Removing the mystical from leadership. Group habits 
encase men. The cramp of custom in relation to migrant 
or innovator. Surmounting opposition. Maintaining 
positive attitudes. Executive meets opposition face to 
face. Energetic character of great men. The work re- 
quirement. The unusual as opportunity; the overflow 
nature. The basic requirement of leadership. The body 
viewed as a chemical machine. 

Chapter III. The Physique of Executives . . . 22-34 
Dorsal and ventral cavities of body; digestion. Sta- 
tistical investigation decided upon. Height and weight 
of railroad presidents, governors, university presidents, 
reformers ; other lists of American executives. Leaders 
compared with average men, with intellectuals and with 
men of less success. The question of correlation between 
leadership and physique. Tables showing weights and 
heights. Graphs of frequency distribution. 



x CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Chapter IV. The Energizing Level .... 35-42 
Small- stature heroes dynamic men. Energy level fluc- 
tuates. The arousing of indolence. The possibility of 
retarding fatigue. Increasing the energizing rate through 
a stimulating environment. Individual wealth, authority, 
and social approval as stimuli. Other elements of stim- 
ulus in environment. The potential genius discovered. 
Progress promoted, with safety to individual ; high levels 
consistently maintained. 

Chapter V. The Increase of Power .... 43-54 

Desire to act is inborn. The luminous idea has the 
onward impulse ; its effect upon Napoleon. Character- 
istics of this idea : clearness, narrowness, and ability to 
hold interest; how power may be derived through it. 
The will and its relation to the idea. Effect of the set 
task, faith in self, impulsive temperament, and intensity 
of conviction. Emotional power for leaders through 
constructiveness and self-assertiveness, occupying the 
focal point, and assuming positive attitudes. The atmos- 
phere of power ; work without ceasing. 

Chapter VI. Effective Effort 55-72 

Crude activity directed into effectiveness. Control 
of energizing rate ; power as needed. Alertness ; its 
advantages in dispatch, effective expenditure, and oppor- 
tunism. Methods through which originality is secured. 
The maturing of thought. Focalization demanded of 
executive by complexities of modern life. Initiative. 
Napoleon as an example of effectiveness in effort. 
Methods. 

Chapter VII. Organization 73-84 

Growth of organized enterprise. Its advantages in 
self-multiplication, division of labor, use of substitutes 
psychologically cheap, workable policies, stimulating and 
stabilizing effect upon executive ; ideal of effective ex- 
penditure. The organizer's type of mind. Drawing up 
a systematic plan ; the organization chart. Sorting out 
typical tasks, man analysis, adjusting man and task. 
Routine tasks and the use of machinery. 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGES 

Chapter VIII. Systematic Personal Effort . . 85-94 
Administrative burdens crushing unless systematized. 
Classifying the material to be dealt with. Working at 
the apex of the business pyramid. Handling correspond- 
ence. Making use of mechanical aids. The " buffer." 
Aiding the overloaded memory. Planning the day's 
work. Sharing burdens with subordinates. Doing versus 
getting things done. Results without haste. Conclusion 
of Part I. Individuality. 

PART II. MOTIVATING THE GROUP 

Chapter IX. Stimulating and Controlling Men . 95-105 
Executive as stimulator. Apathetic organizations far 
too common. Outer versus inner methods ; stimulation 
as release. Mankind builded for action. Effort secured 
through stimulating instincts, emotions, intellect; whole 
mind made active. Various methods available for this 
purpose. Control ; why men submit to others. Collec- 
tive struggle for existence breeds social nature, with 
subordination. Loyalty. How the executive as he stim- 
ulates secures control. 

Chapter X. Personality 106-121 

Power through presence ; as Webster, De Lesseps, 
Napoleon. Explanation of personality. Physique, emo- 
tion, intellect, and socialized nature as elements of natu- 
ral prestige. Why personality includes both positive 
and negative appeals. The ascendancy based upon fear. 
Upon positive and negative self-feeling. Upon inscruta- 
bility. Compoundings of emotions in admiration, awe, 
reverence, and love ; the ascendancy thus established. ' 
Practical measures for extending personality's sway. 

Chapter XI. Imitation 122-134 

Tendency to do as others do more than an instinct. 
In general, the superior is imitated by the inferior. 
Positions of authority confer imitation prestige. How 
wealth dazzles. The aristocracy of achievement. The 
idealizing tendency molds potter's clay into hero stuff. 
Imitation prestige colors all our thinking. Making use 
of imitation in management. 



xii CONTENTS 

PAGES 

Chapter XII. Suggestion 135-148 

Hypnotism merely dramatic form of common phe- 
nomena. Various uses of suggestion. Every normal 
person suggestible. Suggestion power ; prestige of the 
suggestor, suggestibility of the subject, the volume and 
duration of the suggestion. Mobs, crazes, panics, polit- 
ical " landslides." How suggestion is made effective. 
Slantwise and direct suggestion ; Antony's oration. 
Keeping suggestion positive. Infectious nature of sug- 
gestion, and how leaders utilize this. 

Chapter XIII. Emulation 149-160 

Breaking records through contests. Rivalry both lures 
and spurs. Utilizing emulation in management. The 
leader as pace setter. Enthuse an organization by mak- 
ing work a game. Contests with the " enemy." Beating 
records. The promotion policy. The quick, vigorous, 
and continuous action of emulation ; its exalting the 
strong and efficient. Providing incentive, getting all to 
take part, and ruling out wranglings. 

Chapter XIV. Art 161-173 

The leader as actor or stage manager. Why art 1 pos- 
sesses power. The aesthetic demands of followers. Art 
stimulates ; its use for this purpose in war and work. 
The effect of medals and banners. Impressing things 
dramatically. Enlisting the imagination. Art permits 
high lights and shadings. Ceremonialism as a means 
of control. Degeneracy of art ; the Ancient Regime. 

Chapter XV. Illusion 174-187 

Deception predated civilization. Its influence widely 
ramified to-day. Manipulating attention so as to empha- 
size or conceal. The befuddlement of reason ; Mo- 
hammed convenient revelations, the prosperity argument 
in politics. By a clever distortion' of values, illusion 
passes the shoddy as genuine. Credulity natural and 
error follows hard upon it. Error attractive ; it lives 
t long and dies hard. How illusion approaches sincerity. 



CONTENTS xiii 

PAGES 

Chapter XVI. Discipline 188-202 

Moral suasion versus the iron grip. Authority prestige. 
The feeling of inferiority in followers ; joyful subordina- 
tion and obedience. Open and closed resources. How 
obedience getters close resources. Are they closed to- 
day ? Methods of making discipline effective. Graded 
penalties. The approach toward self-government. Good 
form in administering punishment. Why its certainty is 
important. 

Chapter XVII. Rewards 203-215 

Followers possess keen bargaining scent. The real 
content of rewards. Wealth does not satiate. Motive 
behind American materialism. Why money alone can 
reward certain workers. Fatigue versus results. The 
grading of rewards. The antagonism between capital 
and labor. Day rate. Piece rate. Various modifica- 
tions developed under scientific management. Mutual 
interest plans. Right and wrong methods of bestowing 
rewards. 

Chapter XVIII. Idealism 216-226 

The motivating power of ideals. How ideals are 
builded ; their relation to moral virtues. Utilitarian 
idealism. Idealism in war spirit, civic pride, theocratic 
groups, socialism. Emotionalized standards. Ideals ad- 
justed for effectiveness. Executives possessed of great 
expectation. The control of ideals indirect yet none 
the less real. Bringing idealism into work. Leader 
and cause unified. 

Chapter XIX. Instruction 227-244 

Valuable knowledge accumulated; instruction quickly 
transmits it. Executives increasingly called upon to 
teach. Typical methods employed ; library, lectures, 
bulletins and other printed matter, trips, self-improve- 
ment clubs, and schools. All knowledge not of equal 
value. Developing standards. Learner must retrace 
entire route but at accelerated pace. Weaving details 
into generalizations, applying generalizations to new 
concretes. Results attained. 



xiv CONTENTS 

PART III. LIMITS UPON THE 
EXECUTIVE 

PAGES 

Chapter XX. Interest and Apathy .... 245-258 
Subordinates not mere puppets ; at all times they limit 
the executive. Lack of attention and interest negate 
most appeals. The psychological moment. Periods of 
waxing and waning interest, and effect upon executives. 
Forces making new adjustments necessary. What nor- 
mally interests people. Reshaping the interests. Com- 
pulsive ideas. Simplicity, removal of distractions, and 
permitting ebb and flow as means for maintaining inter- 
est. Apathy obverse of interest. 

Chapter XXI. The Arousing of Opposition . . 259-274 
The relation between apathy and opposition. How 
individual habits and group customs create opposition to 
innovations. Pain of a new idea, insecurity and danger 
in innovation ; repression of innovator. The width of 
variation. The career of Joseph II of Austria ; changes 
slow to realize. Men because of age necessarily grow 
out of harmony. Statistical investigation of reformers. 
John Law's career. Coercive power. 

Chapter XXII. Competitors 275-292 

Why competition develops. Attitudes to be taken 
toward competitors, and advantages of each. The mind's 
discordant elements. How doubt arises and decision is 
secured. Individual resolution merges into group reso- 
lution. Prestige versus prestige, prestige versus logic, 
logic versus logic. When to use prestige and when to 
use logic. Securing complete motivation. 

Chapter XXIII. The Executive's Adaptability . . 293-300 
Competition builds up centers of authority. Such 
authority always subject to adaptability. Pure democ- 
racy in theory, and as practiced. Adaptation an all-per- 
vading principle in nature; authority subject to it. The 
variety of demands upon the executive. Surplus favors 
adaptability. The gospel of relaxation. The perfecting 
of adjustments through experience. How the amateur 
becomes expert. Old-fogyism. Maintaining balance. 



CONTENTS xv 

PAGES 

Chapter XXIV. The Final Process : Assimilation . 301-311 
Restatement of thesis. Variations assimilated become 
living tissue. Men as representatives of their age. In- 
creasing stimulus ; decreasing opposition. Making new 
appear old or old appear new. Difference between world 
genius and average executive. Time required to develop 
a conquering cause ; early trials of Mohammed and Jesus. 
Numbers usually win, yet not always ; the rise of superi- 
ority. The law of parsimony demands most for least; 
the executive a means toward this end. 

Appendix. A Statistical Study of Executives . . 313-335 



THE EXECUTIVE AND HIS 
CONTROL OF MEN 

A STUDY IN PERSONAL EFFICIENCY 

CHAPTER I 

Executive Ability 

"Such earnest natures are the fiery pith, 

The compact nucleus, round which systems grow ! 
Mass after mass becomes inspired therewith, 
And whirls impregnate with the central glow." 

"The executive's chidE business is to organize, deputize, and 
supervise." — E. P. Ripley. 

The control of men is the real problem of every or- 
ganization. Ninety-seven per cent of a group of man- 
ufacturers interviewed declare it their most serious 
difficulty ; scientific managers agree that systematic " sol- 
diering" is the menace of industry; psychologists are 
convinced that the average man, without injury, could 
increase his output by a half ; observation and investi- 
gation reenforce the same truth, that progress waits 
upon men and is thus dependent upon executive ability. 

This need for executive ability is fundamental in all 
organized effort. Wolves have a head of the pack, 
mustangs in the Southwest group themselves under 
some powerful male, sheep follow the bellwether. 
Monkeys, if we may believe travelers' accounts, on their 



2 EXECUTIVE ABILITY 

raids or marches have general and staff. The reason is 
evident. Leaders make for effective group action, and 
whether it be animal herd, robber horde, war machine, 
or department store, effective group action in the 
struggle for existence means survival. 

Opportunity for the executive, now as heretofore, treads 
hard upon ability. The centralization of industry, the 
growth of cities, the increased facility of communica- 
tion, the development of the modern state itself, have 
alike socialized men, interlaced their interests, and 
expanded the boundaries of their collective life. The 
village squire merges into the representative, to appear 
before whose numerous constituents even requires much 
mileage and leathern lungs; stagecoach driver and 
keeper of the toll road have become railroad officials; 
peddler and money lender are transformed into depart- 
ment-store manager and corporation director, the one 
numbering his employees by the hundreds, his customers 
by tens of thousands, and the other with his finger on 
many of our purses ; handicraftsman, swept by the new 
currents of business, becomes captain of industry, the 
term manufacture (rnanu, by hand, factum, a making ; 
literally, a making by hand) to-day as a fossil revealing 
the surges of an Industrial Revolution. In short, where- 
ever one may choose to look, tremendous undertakings 
are being rolled up and await direction. To fail here is 
to be crushed under the load of civilization. 

With growth in size has come increase in complexity. 
It is no homogeneous population to which the present- 
day executive appeals. The old North-European stock, 
men from Ireland, Scandinavia, and Germany, no longer 
possesses America for itself, but must compete and mingle 
with the sons of Croatia and Serbia, Bulgaria and Mace- 
donia. When these rub shoulders within the same or- 
ganization, the racial difference in itself is liable to work 



COMPLEXITY AND SPEED 3 

demoralization through coteries and cliques. Moreover, 
the skilled are found with the unskilled, the strong with 
the weak, the cultured with the grossly ignorant; and 
machinery, pitting mechanism against man and mechan- 
ism against mechanism, complicates still further these 
human differences. Utilities are being produced, trans- 
ferred, distributed, and consumed under conditions 
continually growing more intricate. And this affects 
not alone factory foreman or sales manager, but preacher, 
editor, politician, agitator. They all give-and-take 
within the social mass. For their diverse ends they 
have builded organizations without number, more com- 
plex than any timepiece. In such heterogeneity are 
vast advantages, — else it would not have come about, 
— but it requires skill to realize these in practice. 

Another element involved is speed, a comparatively 
modern requirement. The ancient civilizations, Egypt, 
Persia, India, China, as the savage and patriarchal 
society which preceded them, gave promise of an ad- 
vancement they somehow failed to fulfill. Shackle 
upon shackle — communism in property and industry ; 
physical, economic, and social isolation; reverence for 
past achievements; rulership of the old; hypertrophy 
of institutionalism — stagnated these ancient peoples. 
Once on the path of progress, however, — in itself a 
great achievement, — with competition and discussion, 
the forward look, the tentative attitude, and the future 
brightly painted, men began to feel a thrill in motion. 
Such is increasingly true in our day. The inventor 
scarce has perfected one device before he is urged on by 
fresh demands; the politician in drafting a good bill 
has won opportunity to draft better bills; the pleased 
scientist, contemplating his new generalization, is ad- 
monished to make it shorter and more comprehensive ; 
industry, pressed hard by labor for higher wage, capital 



4 EXECUTIVE ABILITY 

for increased interest, landowner for more rent, and 
management for greater profit, vibrates with energy, 
its individual workman speeded up, its organization 
adjusted so that from raw product to shipping room the 
material flows without congestion, its capital made 
active through frequent turnover. Yet to work rapidly, 
to meet the new and subdue it promptly, in the indi- 
vidual are characteristics of an expert; with huge and 
intricate organization, a task for super-man. 

Much more comprehensive than size of organiza- 
tion, its heterogeneity, or the required speed of manipu- 
lation is the demand for effectiveness in its operation. 
In fact, size, complexity, and speed are in themselves 
but means to this larger end, efficiency. Fundamentally, 
what is here involved is nothing less than success in the 
struggle for existence, the prime consideration why any 
creature should limit its individuality in order to lead 
the collective life. Ants exhibit no Hobbesian war, 
but instead dwell in colonies together ; prairie dogs live 
in towns ; wolves hunt in packs ; deer, cattle, buffaloes, 
and horses each group themselves into herds. Savages, 
in their clans, phratries, and tribes, indicate one stage in 
the transition toward Greek city state, feudal holding, 
English manor, German free city, workmen's gild; 
and these in turn are but the forerunners of present- 
day municipalities, neighborhoods, trade-unions, political 
parties, and corporations. Why have men thus per- 
sistently led the collective life? Because no principle 
is more basic than desire for greatest gain with least 
effort ; — men through combined actions can accom- 
plish what individually is impossible, they can get more 
as members of an organization than they could as 
individuals. 

To fulfill this collective ideal of effectiveness requires, 
of course, concerted effort; members must work to- 



EXECUTIVE A VARIATE 5 

gether. In the securing of such action, we note, all 
men are not of equal value, and herein lies the origin 
of leadership. Men by nature and nurture are unlike, 
quite in keeping with most natural phenomena, their 
qualities exhibiting a normal frequency distribution. 1 
Some few are geniuses, some few are cranks, most are 
mediocres. Now working together requires a certain 
degree of similarity; since mutually antagonistic men 
could never carry out a common enterprise, collective 
action rests upon proper conformity to type. Here 
arises the problem of the genius and the fool ; they are 
unlike most men, they insist upon retaining, nay, more 
than that, upon realizing, their unlikenesses ; and it is 
difficult to distinguish clearly one from the other. The 
common criminal it is easy to lock up, yet what does the 
world not owe to Socrates, Jesus, Luther, Darwin? 
So stoned they the prophets. Selecting the right va- 
riate and cleaving only to him, thus becomes the chief 

1 It is of some importance that this point of view be grasped. Let us 
illustrate by a study made of 61,581 flowers of the normal five-petal 
sort, these being found distributed as follows: 



No. of petals . . . 
Frequency 


2 3 4 S 678 
1 6 283 61,060 221 9 1 



iy 



Of this five-petal flower, by far the greatest number were normal, 
that is, were true to type. But some five hundred varied from type; 
and the fact should also be noted that the greater the variation, the less the 
number of variates. These frequencies, plotted on a chart, would show 
graphically what is termed a normal curve of distribution. Galton found 
alike distribution in measuring the strength of pull of 519 men, and Karl 
Pearson has plotted a similar frequency curve indicating the distribution 
of intelligence in 1000 individuals. 

All books on statistics treat this subject of frequency distribution, 
the chapter in G. Udny Yule's Theory of Statistics perhaps being as 
good as any. For the examples here cited, see Vernon, Variation in 
Animals and Plants, 15; Galton, Natural Inheritance, 199; and Biomet- 
rica, V, in. 



W 



6 EXECUTIVE ABILITY 

business of the common man, for such variates are 
immensely helpful. 

The particular direction in which his helpfulness is 
shown depends upon the group need. With enemies 
round about, the strong arm and steady eye have won 
respect. When unusual calamities, uncanny visita- 
tions, and magic portents terrorize simple faith, he leads 
who best can peer into the unknown, placate the unseen, 
and stiffen troubled souls. With men's energies har- 
nessed to work, the materialistic conception of history 
widely held, and abundant natural resources waiting 
to be exploited, authority passes to the business man. 
Or again, a wider socialization emphasizes new alignments, 
elevating among men the applied scientist, the conser- 
vationist, the teachers of brotherhood, social justice, 
and other phases of applied idealism, as is being done in 
our own day. Be the particular need what it will, he 
who best aids his group in realizing it is the helpful 
variate, the successful executive. 

It would follow that leadership assumes maximum 
importance in times when the organization is under 
stress. Herds of cattle feeding quietly represent thor- 
oughgoing equality; let danger threaten, and forward 
stalks the defiant bull. The arrival of a stranger in the 
Indian camp finds many hands pointing the way to the 
chief's tent. War clouds gathering in the East permitted 
Themistocles to break with all tradition by making 
Athens the greatest naval power in Hellas. It was when 
government of the people, by the people, and for the 
people was threatened that Lincoln wielded a power 
such as few Presidents have ever possessed. Periods 
of uncertainty, of transition, of struggle intensify the 
group needs, and in them have all social saviors been 
born. 

To whom shall we to-day grant this title? To 



PERSONAL LEADERSHIP 7 

him best able to bear the burden of a large organization, 
most versatile in dealing with its complexities, most 
adroit in pushing it at top speed, and most effective in 
guaranteeing its members greatest returns for least 
effort. 

Two types of men, each in his own way, seek to satisfy 
these tests: one, intellectual, — author, scientist, artist, 
historian, theologian, philosopher; the other, executive, 
— railroad president, governor, bishop, university presi- 
dent, trade-union official, factory superintendent. In 
one type, intellect is emphasized ; in the other, personal 
impression — a distinction by no means arbitrary, 
however. The intellectual leader is never divorced 
from face-to-face relations, and the personal leader 
depends upon intellect at every step. The difference is 
one of relative emphasis only. Of the two types, the 
latter, the personal, is here selected for study, and its 
representative in the following pages will be referred 
to as executive, or, should the context make the meaning 
clear, simply as leader. 

This study of the executive presents three main lines 
of investigation. First, the executive as an individual. 
What sort of a man is he? In what respects, if any, 
does he differ from ordinary men? These are among 
the questions discussed in Part I. Second, the executive 
motivating his organization. By what means are men 
stimulated? How is control secured? This comprises 
Part II. Third, the reactions of his co-workers upon 
him. By what means do they limit his authority? 
How may these limits be expanded ? How secure effec- 
tive adaptation? This is for Part III. Only by con- 
sidering these three points of view and balancing them 
in their mutual relations do we reach a complete psy- 
chology of management and explain the control of men. 

The claims of Part I are usually overlooked, the 



8 EXECUTIVE ABILITY 

interest, instead, tending to dwell upon that which is 
more apparent and more striking, the executive dominat- 
ing his co-workers. But perhaps he has already with- 
stood certain tests, physical and mental, and it may be 
that these personal factors have determined that he 
should be leader and not of the led. Is the executive, 
therefore, a selected individual? To this question we 
now turn. 

EXERCISES 

i. What four factors enter into production? What does each 
contribute? (See any standard work on economics.) 

2. Show the importance of the executive's contribution. Is 
his role increasing or decreasing in comparative importance? 

3. Define "utility." Is the politician as real a producer as the 
manufacturer ? 

4. Who is the greatest contemporary leader? 

5. Are contemporary leaders surpassed by historical char- 
acters? 

6. Illustrate by concrete example drawn from personal expe- 
rience: mutual aid among animals, leadership in animal groups, 
how a community decides whether the newcomer is a valuable 
member or otherwise, the four tests of executive ability success- 
fully met by a leader. 

READINGS 

McDougall, Social Psychology, Ch. I. 
Kropotktn, Mutual Aid, Ch. I. 



PART I: INDIVIDUALITY 



CHAPTER II 

The Source of Personal Power 

"The initiative of wise or noble things comes and must come 
from individuals, generally at first from some one individual." 

— John Stuart Mill. 

"There is always room for a man of force, and he makes room 
for many." _ RALpH Wald0 Emerson. 

Each executive is inclined to feel his own task is un- 
like any other; "my business is different." It is a 
pleasant fiction. All executives are alike in this signifi- 
cant respect, they must handle people. Now human 
nature is pretty much the same the world over ; in con- 
sequence, however apparent the differences in manag- 
ing mill or public school or railroad, the executive's task 
is essentially the same everywhere. Making use of 
methods diverse as to detail but alike in principle, the 
general manager, bishop, or politician each holds in hand 
the reins of power. 

From this point of view, may there not be certain 
activities in which the executive most clearly manifests 
his supremacy? And should not these when revealed 
answer that age-old question as to what is the "secret" 
of leadership? Regarding the executive as a man of 
deeds, in order to estimate his capacity it is necessary to 
note both what he gets done and the conditions under 
which he does it. Let us consider first the conditions 
surrounding this man of affairs. 

ii 



12 THE SOURCE OF PERSONAL POWER 



THE EXECUTIVE AND ADVERSE PRESSURE 

The executive, as has been pointed out before, rises 
to his full power in times of transition. Alexander, 
Napoleon, Washington, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vail, all 
J were men of change. The organization each controlled 
was much different when he had done with it. Yet how 
adverse to change is the rank and file ! Habit breeds 
in the narrow outlook and routine practice of subordi- 
nates. The organization, quite the same as the larger 
organization termed society, develops its grooves of 
thought along which the mental life flows freely but 
outside of which it is troublesome to go. The approved 
practice is in the air ; it impinges upon the individual 
at every turn. 

Thus is shaped the age-old struggle between con- 
formity and innovation, a struggle that is of daily sig- 
nificance to every executive. Conformity develops be- 
cause community enterprise requires concerted action, 
and concerted action entails discipline. Certain types 
of conduct, in consequence, become reprehensible ; cer- 
tain types are approved, because they have seemed to 
work well. These tend to become social habits. Par- 
ents especially, by the overlapping of generations, shape 
plastic minds to the requirements. Supernatural sanc- 
tions come to attach themselves to these folkways, 
lending horror to the new or unknown and hardening 
the folkways into mores. As in primitive society, with 
its ancestor worship, its council of old men who merely 
disclose what always has been, its insistence that what- 
ever is, is right, so in the early empires of Egypt, Baby- 
lonia, and Persia, with the same practices writ large, 
individuality was dwarfed and innovation crushed under 
a cake of custom. 

But bold, hardy natures chafe under such restrictions. 



MEN OF ENTERPRISE 13 

Like the Norsemen of whom Gibbon writes, "Impatient 
of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from 
the banquet, sounded their horn, ascended their vessels, 
and explored every coast that promised either spoil 
or settlement, " variates from the East plowed the soft 
waters of the ^Egean, and in the sheltered harbors and 
fertile vales became the dynamic men of Greece. When 
Hellas cramped, their sons in turn pushed westward and 
Greek colonies fringed the Mediterranean. 

A like process was European nation building. The 
first kings were not institutions but merely individuals 
who, during the period of conquest and migration which 
formed the state itself, pushed to the front as success- 
ful military adventurers. "The communities conquered 
by the early host leaders probably regarded the latter as 
temporary nuisances, who would in due course be re- 
moved by the hand of death. Their position was totally 
opposed to the old ideas of society ; they were much too 
stern, much too enterprising, much too neglectful of 
time-honored practice, to suit the easy-going ways of 
patriarchal society." * 

Contemporary leaders realize, too, that notwithstand- 
ing the worship of progress we have not escaped the 
custom which cramps. Whole segments of social life 
are f ossiferous. Law's strict adherence to precedent, 
religion's indifference to the fact that it is the letter 
which killeth, education's materials designed for an age 
long past, public opinion's threatened "thought trust," 
industry's "red tape" parading as efficiency, all repre- 
sent a hardening of the social arteries. 

Such a situation does not stimulate all alike. Whether 
it be in a primitive group, an early empire, a conserva- 
tive state, or moss-grown factory, most men yield easily 
to the claims of custom. But abounding vitality is 

1 Jenks, History of Politics, 84-85. 



J 



14 THE SOURCE OF PERSONAL POWER 

not yielding, but assertive. It makes men motors, not 
trailers. It insures an expansive personality, a reach- 
ing after the new and untried, a self unique and asser- 
tive. 

It is not mere inertia, however, with which a leader 
has to contend should he wish to introduce improved 
management, social justice, or a new freedom. Opposi- 
tion confronts the innovator. The Chicago papers re- 
ferred to the evangelist as "Crazy" Moody and claimed 
that P. T. Barnum was backing the whole movement. 
Clergymen saw in William Lloyd Garrison "an arch- 
conspirator against the very framework of society, a 
wretch for whom the penitentiary was too good." 1 
So industriously were tales of his "wickedness" circu- 
lated that the peasantry believed Clive had built the 
walls of his house so thick in order to keep out the devil. 2 
Wyclif's enemies termed him "a glutton when he ate, 
and a hypocrite when he fasted." Roosevelt's oppo- 
nents in a recent campaign, it is said, could not men- 
tion him without frothing at the mouth. The leader, 
therefore, as he clears the social jungles and disturbs 
its moss-grown trunks, is opposed as a fanatic, a danger- 
ous disorganizer, an unsafe man. Such opposition sends 
most men home — to bed. They withdraw within them- 
selves, their social self wilted. The vigorous nature, 
however, reacts positively. It rises above depreciation 
because the dynamo is within. 

Again, it is not merely withstanding opposition as 
such that must be noted, but the particular way in which 
the executive is called upon to meet it. The intellectual 
leader as editor pens the stinging blow, safely sheltered 
by roll-top desk ; as sculptor in his studio he models 
the statue which divides into warring camps the world 

1 William Lloyd Garrison, IV, 337. 

2 Mallcson, Life of Robert Clivc, 490-491. 



FACE-TO-FACE RELATIONS 15 

of art; as peaceful scientist in his laboratory he but- 
tresses with evidence his revolutionary theories. As 
Voltaire, the luring old mocker, threw bombs at the 
Ancient Regime, himself in retreat, or Marat drove 
Lafayette into desperation with the scurrilous sheet 
composed in sewer or attic, this type of leader may be 
in the world and yet not personally of it. Our type of 
leader, however, must descend into the arena, there to 
contend face-to-face with robust personalities. 

A Melancthon, diffident, hesitating, of frail body and 
stammering tongue, by this test is clearly set apart in 
type of leadership from a Luther, "rough, boisterous, 
stormy, and altogether warlike" ; as he himself says, 
"born to fight against innumerable monsters and devils." 
And this test of face-to-face relations, in industry, 
politics, 1 and the ministry as well, will not soon pass 
away. 

So far as adverse pressure is concerned, consequently, 
we conclude that a leader must pierce the cake of cus- /, / 
torn, surmount opposition, maintain the positive atti- / 
tude, and meet opponents face-to-face, tasks all of which 
require vigor. 

1 In the House of Commons the following scene occurred not long 
since. Mr. Asquith had made a statement. "Then up jumped Mr. 
Lounsbury, his face contorted with passion, and his powerful rasping 
voice dominating the whole house. Shouting and waving his arms, he 
approached the government Front Bench with a curious crouching gait, 
like a boxer leaving his corner in the ring. One or two Liberals on the 
bench behind Mr. Asquith half rose, but the Prime Minister sat stolidly 
gazing above the heads of the opposition, his arms folded, and his lips 
pursed. Mr. Lounsbury had worked himself up into a state of frenzy 
and, facing the Prime Minister, he shouted, 'You are beneath my con- 
tempt ! Call yourself a gentleman ! You ought to be driven from public 
life.' . . . For five minutes the Honourable George Lounsbury defied 
the Speaker, insulted the Prime Minister, and scorned the House of 
Commons. He raved in an ecstasy of passion; challenging, taunting, 
and defying." Atlantic Monthly, October, 191 2, p. 435. 



16 THE SOURCE OF PERSONAL POWER 



THE WORK TEST 

The view has attained some popularity that greatness 
consists in rising above personal effort, that truly im- 
portant men rest content in making others work. It is 
believed, moreover, — and this view is illustrated in 
practice by the leisure class, — that returns come not 
from toil, but from having the throttle hold. Without 
doubt vast enterprises are managed only through or- 
ganization, as will later be shown; but organization 
ever requires an effective head. And as for the second 
view, an equality of opportunity is being worked out 
under which regime no idler may eat of another's bread. 

Leading historical characters, in addition, exemplify 
no policy of inaction ; they have been mighty in effort. 
Bismarck's " power of work was marvelous. His phys- 
ical and intellectual vigor seemed inexhaustible." 
Charles XII, the Madman of the North, "like his father, 
was fond of hard work, and had an infinite capacity for 
taking pains." O'Connell's energy "was amazing, and 
only equaled by his enthusiasm." Mohammed "worked 
continuously, allowing himself no day of rest." John 
Wesley's "devotion to the plan of duty he had laid down 
for himself was so entire and so absorbing, that it left 
no time for leisure, hardly for reflection. He was always 
going somewhere." William the Silent, in preparing 
for the confederation, "left no stone unturned, exerting 
himself so strenuously that he hardly had time to breathe 
from morning to night." Although among the powers 
of Frederick the Great his "energy alone was truly great," 
this energy "was such that to him few achievements were 
impossible." Charlemagne, though burdened with the 
cares of a vast empire, tried in addition to educate him- 
self, learned foreign languages, studied grammar, rhetoric, 
logic, and astronomy under Alcuin ; and Einhard relates 






INTENSE ACTIVITY 17 

that "Karl also tried to write, and used to keep his 
tablets and writing-book under the pillow of his couch, 
that when he had leisure he might practice his hand in 
forming letters." 

Such activity at times approaches the abnormal in 
its intensity. Henry IV of France was movement 
incarnate, and even in later years, "when after a long 
day's hunting his weary attendants could hardly stand, 
he would not rest, but must move about. " His biog- 
rapher says that "from boyhood on, nothing is more 
characteristic of Alexander than his restless passion for 
reshaping and subduing. Action was almost a mania 
with him." The Emperor Napoleon, in the midst of his 
mighty toils of war, did not neglect the civil affairs of 
his huge domain. "We see him, in his tent at Asterode 
and Fenkenslein, administering, in the minutest detail, 
his centralized and all-controlling government. He 
props up the finances, tries to promote industry, en- 
courages letters and the education of the young, and 
keeps a watchful eye on a jealous police." 

These history makers in general seem to have practiced 
the view thus set forth by one of them : "Talleyrand," 
Napoleon once remarked to his Prime Minister, "the 
best evidence of ability is immense capacity for hard 
work and an intense conviction of its necessity." And 
who shall claim the rulers of business or politics to-day 
are not like unto them? 

THE UNUSUAL AS OPPORTUNITY 

Such tasks as just mentioned draw the life blood; 
they leave the ordinary man with his personality ex- 
ploited. In this condition, he must forego unusual 
opportunity, because if embraced, it threatens to sub- 
merge him. As Bismarck at Saint Petersburg, on re- 



1 8 THE SOURCE OF PERSONAL POWER 

ceiving news that a call to the Prussian ministry was 
imminent, wrote to Room "Your letter disturbed me in 
my comfortable meditations. Your cry 'to horse' came 
with a shrill discord. I have grown ill in mind, tired 
out, and spiritless since I lost the foundation of my 
health." 

Bismarck, however, with reserve possibilities, after a 
night's rest added this postscript of the morning, "If 
the King will to some extent meet my views, then I will 
set to work with pleasure." After a brief vacation, 
so far was his old spirit, decision, and directness of action 
recovered that he agreed to undertake the government 
as Minister-President, even against a majority of the 
parliament, without a budget, circumstances to try the 
strongest nerves. Carrying the burden which had 
crushed others, in nine years the King whom he had 
found ready to abdicate he saw crowned as Emperor 
of United Germany, himself at the peace negotiations, 
thus impressing an interested spectator: "I was at the 
outset struck by the contrast between the negotiators. 
Count Bismarck wore the uniform of the White Cuiras- 
siers, white tunic, white cap, and yellow band. He 
looked a giant. In his tight uniform, with his broad 
chest and square shoulders, and bursting with health 
and strength, he overwhelmed the stooping, thin, tall, 
miserable- looking lawyer with his frock coat, wrinkled 
all over, and his white hair falling over his collar. A 
look, alas, at the pair was sufficient to distinguish be- 
tween the conqueror and conquered, the strong and 
the weak." 1 

With such powers as this as a basis, men move from 
province to capital, expand clerkships into managerial 
positions. No particular merit attaches to the usual 
accomplishment; but the man of energy-plus is able 

1 Headlam, Bismarck, 146, 159, 161, 162, 358, 377. 



ENERGY-PLUS 19 

to handle the emergency order or, like Alexander and 
Frederick the Great, construct an organization demand- 
ing more than any successor can furnish. He overflows 
his position. The recent term as president of a truly 
dynamic man was marked by a crop of pamphlets on 
" executive usurpation." Now vigorous men always 
will seek power; unusual energy cannot be restrained 
by the usual limits, but expanding these limits will win 
distinction by doing the extra thing. 

What, then, should be regarded as the basis of execu- 
tive ability? Its ultimate source is energy. In with- 
standing adverse pressure, doing large amounts of work, 
and overflowing the usual, success is linked up with 
energy. Limited vigor, it is true, permits a man to be 
a world figure, as Darwin or Spencer, to do thinking 
for all time; it may even permit men, like Hamilton, 
to be a leader of leaders ; but in the management of men 
at first hand mere physical energy is fundamental. 

SOURCE OF ENERGY 

In seeking out the source of this energy we are led 
into a set of most interesting problems, the domain of 
physiological chemistry. Here preside a group of 
scientists intent on solving the riddle of life, and they 
have already gone far. Not only have they become 
able to produce artificially the compounds formed in 
the animal body, but the chemical reactions which take 
place in living organisms they can repeat at the same 
rate and temperature in the laboratory. 1 Such experi- 
ments do much to place life upon a strictly natural- 
istic basis, which, it may be added, includes nervous 
phenomena as well. For to the physiologist the func- 

1 Loeb, Mechanistic Conception of Life, 5. See also his Dynamics of 
Living Matter, 7. 



20 THE SOURCE OF PERSONAL POWER 

tions of the nervous system, even the most intricate 
thought processes, are simply manifestations of energy. 
The capacities of the nervous system are thus dependent 
directly upon the chemical and physical alterations going 
on constantly within its constituents. 1 

The body, consequently, may be regarded as a chem- 
ical machine. Through the food which he eats — and 
digests, it must never be forgotten — the individual 
stores up within his body, for use when needed, quan- 
tities of highly complex and unstable chemical com- 
pounds. Operated upon by nervous stimuli, these 
compounds assume more simple and stable forms, 
at the same time liberating heat and performing work. 
The body is by no means static; composed of living 
cells, it is dynamic, the scene of incessant change. 

The building up process, termed anabolism, and the 
destructive process, termed katabolism, are continually 
going on side by side, a just balance between the two, 
in the long run, being essential to well-being and con- 
tinued accomplishment. A high energizing rate, con- 
sequently, calls for an equally rapid constructive process 
— via the lungs and stomach. It is clear, therefore, 
that a leader is well fortified in fundamentals when, as 
Thomas Jefferson wrote of himself, he is " blessed with 
organs of digestion which accepted and concocted, with- 
out ever murmuring, whatever the palate chose to con- 
sign to them." 

EXERCISES 

i. Which binds its members more closely by custom, a religious 
organization or a business organization ? Why ? 

2. What truth behind the phrase "Westward the star of em- 
pire takes its sway"? 

1 Barker, The Nervous System. Howell, Text-Book of Physiology, 
1 30-1 71 passim. 



EXERCISES AND READINGS 21 

3. Why do we ridicule the customs of other peoples while 
oblivious to our own? 

4. By what methods do some executives avoid face-to-face 
relations? Why? 

5. Discuss the relation between business success and overtime. 

6. Why do wage earners believe the executive does not work? 

READINGS 

Sumner, Folkways, Ch. II, or Bagehot, Physics and Politics, 

Ch. III. 
Ladd and Woodworth, Physiological Psychology, Ch. XI. 



CHAPTER III 

The Physique of Executives 

"The body is but a watch, whose watchmaker is the new 
chyle." — La Mettrie. 

Viewing it as a chemical machine, is a larger body 
able to supply a greater amount of energy ? A diagram 
may make this problem clearer. As is indicated in the 
accompanying figure (Fig. i), the body is divided into 
two cavities, a dorsal and a ventral. The dorsal, 
housing the brain and spinal cord, need not now engage 
our attention. But the ventral, it is seen, is divided by 
a muscular partition, the diaphragm, into two sections: 
the thoracic, in which He the heart and lungs ; and the 
abdominal, occupied in the main by the digestive system. 
The action of these various organs, briefly stated, is as 
follows : the food is taken into the mouth, there masti- 
cated, mixed with saliva, and swallowed. In the stom- 
ach and intestines this food is mixed with other fluids, 
digested, and after being absorbed through the stomach 
and intestinal walls, is carried away by the circulation. 
In the cells of the body this nutritive material combined 
with oxygen develops energy. The waste products of 
the process are removed by the blood which, in turn, 
is purified in the lungs. Now the question arises, a 
similar effectiveness of action being granted in each 
case: will not more capacious organs mean increased 
power ? Or, stating it in terms of the preceding chapter: 
should not leaders be physically large? 



A STATISTICAL INQUIRY 



23 



Brain 



Spinal cord 



It was with a view to bringing statistical evidence to 
bear upon this question, among others, that a letter of 
inquiry was sent to one 
hundred leading railroad 
executives, presidents in 
most cases, but a number 
of general managers of 
the larger systems being 
also included; fifty-five 
replied. Tabulated, their 
answers reveal the inter- 
esting information that 
this group of men aver- 
age five feet, ten and 
nine tenths inches in 
height ; weight one hun- 
dred eighty-six pounds. 
A slightly different type 
of leader was then chosen, 
and letters of inquiry 
sent to the respective 
governors. Forty-six re- 
plies were tabulated. 
The governors are five 
feet, eleven and two 
tenths inches tall; and 
weight, one hundred 
eighty-two pounds. An- 
other group of leaders 
was next selected, this 
time from the educational 
field, the university presidents. Seventy-six letters were 
sent ; sixty-one replies received. Again was indicated a 
man of relatively large physique ; height five feet, ten 
and eight tenths inches, weight one hundred eighty-one 




Lung* 



Heart 

Diaphragm 

Liver 

Stomach 
Kidney 



Intestine 



Fig. 



-Dorsal and Ventral Cavi- 
ties of Body. 

Reproduced from Overton's General Hygiene, 
copyright, 19 13, by American Book Company, 
Publishers. 



24 THE PHYSIQUE OF EXECUTIVES 

pounds. One more illustration may here be given. Our 
country has its reformers , vigorous agitators against city 
congestion, tuberculosis, bad health and housing, har- 
bingers of good roads, short ballots, workmen's compen- 
sation, etc. These men, usually termed executive secre- 
taries, to the number of forty- two gave personal data. 
Their height is five feet, eleven and four tenths inches ; 
weight one hundred eighty-one pounds. 

Following this list, 2197 additional letters were sent, 
making a total of 2497. The names of those to whom 
inquiry was directed were secured from Who's Who, 
various directories, catalogues, and in some cases from 
secretaries or others informed regarding the particular 
group. The returns, it is believed, cover practically 
every important group of leaders in America. The data, 
including several other items of interest in addition 
to the figures relating to weight and height, will be 
presented in the various tables and diagrams which 
follow. In the Addenda the material is presented in 
summarized form, to which, it may be added, the reader 
should turn should he desire more information than is 
presented in connection with any particular diagram or 
table. 

THE HEIGHT OF EXECUTIVES 

In addition to the returns received from the executives 
it was thought advisable to secure data from intellec- 
tuals, as this term is defined in Chapter I. Accordingly, 
copies of the questionnaire were sent to six groups of 
such men — inventors, psychologists, artists, authors, 
musicians, and philosophers. In all, data were received 
from forty different groups of leaders, the most promi- 
nent men in the country. 

The replies received from these various groups were 
tabulated and the groups then arranged in Table I 



COMPARISONS IN HEIGHT 25 

LEADERS RANKED ACCORDING TO HEIGHT 



Rank 


Name of Group 


Height 


1 


Reformers 


5: 11.4 


2 


Superintendents Street Cleaning 


5"- n-3 


3 


Wardens 


5: 11.3 


4 


Governors 


5: 11. 2 


5 


Chiefs of Police 


5: 11. 1 


6 


Socialist Organizers 


5 : 10.9 


7 


Railroad Presidents 


5 : 10.9 


8 


University Presidents 


5:10.8 


9 


Economists and Sociologists 


5:10.8 


10 


Bank Presidents 


5 : 10.7 


11 


Senators 


5: 10.6 


12 


Bishops 


5 : 10.6 


13 


Presidents State Bar 


5: 10.5 


14 


City School Superintendents 


5:10.4 


15 


Presidents Labor Organizations 


5 : 10.4 


16 


Presidents Religious Organizations 


5 '• 10.4 


17 


Corporation Directors 


5 : 10.4 


18 


Chiefs Fire Departments 


5 : 10.3 


19 


Anti-Saloon League Organizers 


5 : 10.3 


20 


Y. M. C. A. Secretaries 


5 : 10.3 


21 


World's Work List 


5 : 10.3 


22 


Inventors 


5 : 10.2 


23 


Authors 


5 : 10.2 


24 


Sales Managers 


5: 10.1 


25 


Artists 


5: 10.1 


26 


Mayors 


5 : 10.0 


27 


Factory Superintendents 


5: 9-8 


28 


Insurance Presidents 


5: 9-7 


29 


Psychologists 


5: 9-7 


30 


Presidents Fraternal Orders 


5: 9-6 


3i 


Chief Justices State Courts 


5: 9-6 


32 


Philosophers 


5: 9-6 


33 


Merchants 


5: 9-4 


34 


Roundhouse Foremen 


5: 9-3 


35 


Anti-Saloon League Officials 


5: 9-2 


36 


Lecturers 


5: 9-2 


37 


Manufacturers 


5: 9.o 


38 


Labor Organizers 


5: 8.2 


39 


Publishers 


5: 7-9 


40 


Musicians 


5: 5-6 



Height is given in feet, inches, and tenths of inches, and includes 
shoes. Shoes were also included in the policyholders' measure- 
ments to be quoted below. If height without shoes is desired, 
deduct one inch, the usual practice in university gymnasiums. 

Table I. 



26 THE PHYSIQUE OF EXECUTIVES 

according to the average height of their members. In 
looking through this list of forty groups (see Table I), 
one finds the executives predominating in the upper 
ranks while the intellectuals are all within the lower 
twenty groups. 

THE WEIGHT OF EXECUTIVES 

In a similar way we may study the returns as to 
weight. For this purpose let us construct Table II, 
Leaders Ranked According to Weight. The same 
general conclusion is shown here, although the result 
in this case is somewhat more clear-cut than in the table 
showing heights. The executives predominate in the 
upper ranks, the six groups of intellectuals being con- 
fined to the lower quarter of the groups. 

The above conclusions seem to imply, perhaps, that 
greatness depends merely upon size. In fact, some who 
have seen these tables prior to publication in more than 
half seriousness have declared that their chances for 
fame were such and such, because were not their weights 
this and heights that? Further thought, however, will 
dispel many of these hasty conclusions. As was pointed 
out in Chapter I, leaders may be termed either intellec- 
tual or executive, the latter here being the type chosen 
for study. The professor of philosophy in one of our 
leading universities, height five feet, nine and six tenths 
inches and weight one hundred and fifty-eight pounds, 
is certainly, when judged by broad social effectiveness, not 
inferior to the average chief of police though the latter 
exceed him in height by an inch and a half and in weight 
by forty-four pounds. 

It is clear, in consequence, that the conclusion to be 
drawn from the above tables is not that eminence in 
general is necessarily correlated with size, but that 



COMPARISONS IN WEIGHT 27 

LEADERS RANKED ACCORDING TO WEIGHT 



Rank 


Name of Group 


Weight 


1 


Superintendents Street Cleaning 


216.7 


2 


Chiefs of Police 


202.4 


3 


Wardens 


191. 2 


4 


Presidents Fraternal Orders 


190.4 


5 


Chiefs Fire Departments 


189.4 


6 


Y. M. C. A. Secretaries 


188.6 


7 


Bank Presidents 


186.8 


8 


Factory Superintendents 


186.7 


9 


Presidents Labor Organizations 


186.3 


10 


Railroad Presidents 


186.3 


11 


Labor Organizers 


186.1 


12 


Senators 


185.0 


13 


Anti-Saloon League Organizers 


184.9 


14 


Sales Managers 


182.8 


IS 


World's Work List 


182.2 


16 


Governors 


182.0 


17 


Reformers 


181. 7 


18 


University Presidents 


181.6 


19 


Corporation Directors 


179.8 


20 


City School Superintendents 


178.6 


21 


Roundhouse Foremen 


177.0 


22 


Mayors 


176.9 


23 


Bishops 


176.4 


24 


Anti-Saloon League Officials 


176.3 


25 


Insurance Presidents 


175-2 


26 


Publishers 


i7i-9 


27 


Presidents State Bar 


i7i-5 


28 


Socialist Organizers 


171.0 


29 


Economists and Sociologists 


170.8 


30 


Manufacturers 


169.9 


3i 


Presidents Religious Organizations 


169.8 


32 


Inventors 


169.4 


33 


Chief Justices State Courts 


169.0 


34 


Artists 


165.7 


35 


Merchants 


i63-7 


36 


Lecturers 


162.3 


37 


Musicians 


161.9 


38 


Philosophers 


158.4 


39 


Authors 


158.0 


40 


Psychologists 


155-3 



Weight is given in pounds and tenths of a pound, and includes 
clothing. Clothing was also included in the policyholders' meas- 
urements. If weight without clothing is desired, deduct ten 
pounds, the usual practice in university gymnasiums. 

Table II. 



28 



THE PHYSIQUE OF EXECUTIVES 



TABLE SHOWING BOTH HEIGHT AND WEIGHT 



Name of Group 


Height 


Weight 


Superintendents Street Cleaning 


5:ii-3 


216.7 


Wardens 


5:ii-3 


191. 2 


Chiefs of Police 


5:11.1 


202.4 


Railroad Presidents 


5 : 10.9 


186.3 


Bank Presidents 


5:10.7 


186.8 


Reformers 


5:11.4 


181.7 


Governors 


5:11-2 


182.0 


Senators 


5:10.6 


185.0 


Chiefs Fire Departments 


5 : 10.3 


189.4 


Presidents Labor Organizations 


5:10.4 


186.3 


University Presidents 


5 : 10.8 


181.6 


Y. M. C. A. Secretaries 


5 : 10.3 


188.6 


Anti-Saloon League Organizers 


5 : 10.3 


184.9 


Presidents Fraternal Orders 


5: o-6 


190.4 


City School Superintendents 


5 : 10.4 


178.6 


Socialist Organizers 


5 : 10.9 


171.0 


Factory Superintendents 


5: 9-8 


186.7 


Bishops 


5 : 10.6 


176.4 


Corporation Directors 


5: 10.4 


179.8 


World's Work List 


5 : 10.3 


182.2 


Sales Managers 


5: 10. 1 


182.8 


Economists and Sociologists 


5:10.8 


170.8 


Presidents State Bar 


5 : 10.5 


171. 5 


Presidents Religious Organizations 


5 : 10.4 


169.8 


Mayors 


5 : 10.0 


176.9 


Labor Organizers 


5: 8.2 


186.1 


Insurance Presidents 


5: 9-7 


175-2 


Inventors 


5: 10.2 


169.4 


Roundhouse Foremen 


5: 9-3 


i77-o 


Anti-Saloon League Officials 


5: 9-2 


176.3 


Artists 


5:10.1 


165-7 


Authors 


5 : 10.2 


158.0 


Chief Justices State Courts 


5: 9-6 


169.0 


Publishers 


5: 7-9 


171.9 


Manufacturers 


5: 90 


169.9 


Merchants 


5 : 9-4 


163.7 


Psychologists 


5: 9-7 


155-3 


Philosophers 


5: 9-6 


158.4 


Lecturers 


5 : 9-2 


162.3 


Musicians 


5: 5-6 


161. 9 



Table III. 



HEIGHT AND WEIGHT • 29 

superiority in weight and height tend to favor one in 
the contest for executive positions. If the tables are 
examined, then, not from the standpoint of eminence but 
with such questions as these in mind, Does this man's 
daily work require him to meet others in an intimate, 
give-and-take way? How many people must he deal 
with, and what kind of people are they? it is believed 
the favorable relationship between size and executive 
capacity will not fail to impress the reader. For the 
purpose of such examination it may be helpful to com- 
bine Tables I and II into a third so that one has the 
data on both height and weight before him without the 
necessity of turning pages. (See Table III.) 

EXECUTIVES COMPARED WITH POLICYHOLDERS 

The above comparison had to do with executives and 
intellectuals, but it would also be interesting to know 
how executives compare with the average man, the so- 
called man on the street. Unfortunately, so far as the 
author is aware, no satisfactory data concerning the 
average man have yet been collected in this country. 
But the life insurance records of their policyholders 
furnish a fairly good substitute, at least the best that is 
at present available. 

The Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors 
and the Actuarial Society of America have recently co- 
operated in preparing and publishing a Medico- Actuarial 
Investigation, from which source have been drawn the 
data presented here in graphic form as a comparison 
with that of the executives. (See Figure 2.) This 
diagram indicates that the executives considerably 
exceed the policyholders in height. 

The distribution of the executives according to weight 
may now be shown in graphic form. (See Figure 3.) 



3° 



THE PHYSIQUE OF EXECUTIVES 



One is unable, however, in this case to compare graphi- 
cally the executives with the policyholders, since in the 
above report it was not found necessary to compile a 
frequency distribution of the latter. 1 But as it stands 
the graph indicates that the executives most common 
are from one hundred seventy pounds to one hundred 
eighty pounds, certainly men of good weight. 



£10 
200 
,130 





































































































~ 


Exe 


sutives 
























/ 


i 

I 
» 






Poli 




•3 


160 

140 

l w 

100 
nn 


























t 


-.--* 


> 


1 

% 
% 
t 






























/ 
/ 
/ 






1 
» 




























/ 


f 






1 


























4 

/ 


/ 










\ 












80 
60 
40 
20 














/ 
f 

/ 














l 
X 

\ 






















t 

i 














\ 
X 

\ 


















/ 




































f 




















y 




\ 





6-..1 6:2 5:3 5:4 5:5 5:6 5:7 5:8 5:9 5:10 5:11 6:0 6:1 6:2 6:3 6:4. 6:5 6:6 6:7 
Height in.Feet and Inches 

Fig. 2. — Executives and Policyholders compared in Height. 5 

1 Although the measurements are not strictly comparable, it is in- 
teresting to note that the policyholders aged 53 years (approximately 
the same age as the executives, as is shown on frequency table in Ap- 
pendix, although for the executives this is an average age, some being 
above, some under) and the same average height as all the policyholders 
(58.5 in.) are 164.5 lb- weight. In comparison with this figure, the 
executives would be over sixteen pounds heavier. 

2 The number of policyholders, 221,819, has been reduced propor- 
tionately to the same as that of the leaders, 1037; the frequency distri- 
bution being of course kept unchanged. The class interval being one 
inch, the above figuns on height should be followed by a minus sign 
which has unintentionally been omitted. 



POSITION AND PHYSIQUE 



3i 



aw 

175 

350 

|125 
O 
100 










































































































1W 

a 

50 
25 











































































































110 120 130 140 150 



Fig. 3. 



160 170 180 ISO 200 210 220 230 240 

Weight in Pounds 
Weight of Executives. 



The class interval being ten pounds, the above figures on weight should be 
followed by a minus sign which has unintentionally been omitted. 



SIZE AND IMPORTANCE OF POSITION HELD 

In noting the favorable relationship between these 
important executives and their size, one is led to inquire 
if there might not possibly be some connection between 
the executive's physique, as measured by height and 
weight, and the importance of the position he holds. 
Upon this question some interesting data have been 
collected, and though the results are not as conclusive 
as one might desire (see note on page 32), they are still 
well worth consideration. 

Statistics have been received from preachers in 
small towns and villages where the total amount raised 
for church support was under one thousand dollars 
annually ; presidents of small colleges whose enrollment 
was under two hundred and fifty and annual budget 



32 



THE PHYSIQUE OF EXECUTIVES 



under twelve thousand dollars; principals of small 
public schools whose monthly salary did not exceed 
seventy-five dollars; county attorneys from six differ- 
ent states ; salesmen of typewriters ; and station agents 
in towns not exceeding five hundred inhabitants. 

In no way is it to be implied that stigma attaches to 
any of these men. They are merely filling less impor- 
tant positions than the bishops, university presidents, 
city school superintendents, and others with whom they 
are compared. Their respective heights and weights 
are as follows. (See Table IV.) In each case the larger 
position is held by the larger man. 

PHYSIQUE IN RELATION TO POSITION 1 



Class 



i. Bishops 

2. Preachers Small Towns 

3. University Presidents 

4. Presidents Small Colleges 

5. City School Supts. 

6. Principals Small Towns 

7. Presidents State Bar 

8. County Attorneys 

9. Sales Managers 
10. Salesmen 

n. Railroad Presidents 

12. Station Agents 



Height 


Difference 


Weight 


5 : 10.6 




176.4 


5: 8.8 


1.8 in. 


1594 


5 : 10.8 




181.6 


5: 9.6 


1.2 in. 


164.O 


5 : 10.4 




178.6 


5: 9-7 


.7 m. 


157-6 


5:10.5 




I7I.5 


5 : 10.0 


• 5 m. 


162.4 


5: IO.I 




182.8 


5: 9-i 


1.1 in. 


i57-o 


5 : 10.9 




186.3 


5: 94 


1.5 in. 


154.6 



Difference 



17.0 lb. 

17.6 lb. 
21.0 lb. 

9.1 lb. 
25.8 lb. 

31.7 lb. 



Table IV. 



This will probably be as far as the average readers 
interest will impel him to follow these statistics, and 

^hc averages given in the above table were computed directly from 
the original schedules, but for the benefit of those who may wish to apply 



EXERCISES 



33 



if so he may neglect the Appendix, in which the results 
are analyzed in greater detail, and instead turn at once 
to Chapter IV, The Energizing Level. 



EXERCISES 

i. What was the ascetic ideal of medieval times? Point out 
how this view still tends to color present-day thinking. 

2. What correlation has been discovered between adenoids and 
defective teeth and eyes, and the laggards in our public schools? 

3. Discuss the significance to the South of the campaign 
against the hookworm. 

more refined methods to these data the items have been arranged in 
frequency tables (class intervals 1 in. and 10 lbs. respectively) from 
which the following have been deduced : 



Class 


Number 


Average 


St. 


Die. in 


Number 


Average 


St. 


DlF. IN 


Number 


Cases 


Height 


Dev. 


Inches 


Cases 


Weight 


Dev. 


Pounds 


I 


81 


70.8 


2.4 




82 


178.2 


26.9 




2 


30 


69.2 


2.7 


1.6 


31 


160.5 


21. 1 


17.7 


3 


58 


71.2 


2.4 




61 


183.9 


23.O 




4 


26 


69.7 


1-7 


i.5 


26 


165.4 


25.5 


18.5 


5 


25 


70.3 


1.8 




26 


180.O 


22.2 




6 


28 


09.5 


3.0 


.8 


29 


159-5 


21.7 


20.5 


7 


38 


69-5 


2.7 




37 


173. 1 


25.1 




8 


31 


69.I 


1.8 


.4 


3i 


156.3 


I4.I 


16.8 


9 


23 


69.5 


2.1 




23 


184.6 


19.7 




10 


50 


68.5 


2.1 


1.0 


54 


159.1 


19.7 


25.5 


11 


53 


71.3 


1.9 




54 


188.1 


23.4 




12 


30 


68.8 


2.4 


2-5 


29 


156.4 


19.8 


31.7 



Another factor to be considered is that age affects weight, and since 
the two groups compared are not of the same age a correction should be 
made in this respect. In the Medico- Actuarial Mortality Investigation 
the data are presented upon which a rough approximation of this cor- 
rection may be made (page 13). The younger group in each case is the 
second and as weight during the periods under consideration increases 
with age, these corrections may be deducted from the weight differences 
shown in the table: Preachers 1.5 lb., presidents colleges .4 lb., princi- 
pals 6.8 lb., attorneys 4.1 lb., salesmen 5.9 lb., and agents 8.1 lb. These 
corrections are based upon the average age as shown in the statistical 
summary, pages 320-323, and, as will be recognized by those familiar 
with more refined methods, are rough approximations. 



34 THE PHYSIQUE OF EXECUTIVES 

4. What is the aim of the eugenic movement? By what 
means does it seek to attain its purpose? 

5. Does your observation of executives confirm or oppose the 
various conclusions of this chapter? 

6. Through what modifications in diet, exercise, bathing, sleep, 
etc., have you been able to increase your energy? 

READINGS 

Lecky, History of European Morals, Vol. II, pp. 108-148. 
Gulick, The Efficient Life, or ibid., Mind and Work. 



CHAPTER IV 

The Energizing Level 

"The plain fact remains that men the world over possess 
amounts of resource, which only very exceptional individuals 
push to their extremes of use." — William James. 

The statistics presented indicate that physically the 
executive is an exceptional man. The problem of 
controlling others may seem thereby to assume a fatal- 
istic aspect — for who by being anxious can add a cubit 
to his stature? Yet certain men of small stature have 
proved themselves masterful ; the founder of Method- 
ism a little man barely five feet six inches in height, 
Henry IV of France scarcely larger, Alexander and Lord 
Nelson possessing no towering frames, and Napoleon, 
so diminutive that in showing himself to his soldiers he 
chose to appear on horseback. 

But of these same men biographers have used the 
terms " always going somewhere," " power defied 
fatigue," " energy incarnate." Small of stature it is 
true, yet they were human dynamos. Energy is the, 
true basis of leadership, and though in general related 
to size, is not at all definitely limited by it. Large men 
may be lethargic and small men dynamic. Physical 
and mental energy is not static in amount, but subject 
to considerable fluctuations. 

Individual lives constantly evidence such fluctuations. 
Clive, an idler and a scapegrace, once immersed in things 

35 



36 THE ENERGIZING LEVEL 

military reveled in life. Luther, than whom no reformers 
have been more ardent, ten years before the Reforma- 
tion, as a retiring professor pleaded that he might not 
be forced into theological teaching. The champion of 
Islam, Saladin, earlier in life loved retreat and the dis- 
course of pious men, and accepted command, as he 
recounted the scene in later years, " like one driven 
to my death." An idle, dreamy, slouching roamer was 
young Patrick Henry, a confirmed failure it seemed, until, 
having espoused the law and being roused by the Parson's 
Case, he was transformed into the fiery revolutionary 
orator. Benjamin Franklin through pressure alone was 
forced from the life of social ease he was planning at 
Philadelphia and by the Revolution molded into an 
American hero. The indolent Webster only under 
unusual stimulus would bestir himself and, intellect in 
full play, become as grand and effective in eloquence as 
is given human nature to be. 

Similar instances are observed again and again. Who 
has not seen, when loved ones were threatened, frail 
women becoming able to bear tremendous burdens; 
in the teeth of the storm sailors for long periods defying 
danger and fatigue ; in the political campaign the vital- 
ity of candidates rising with the strength of opposition ; 
or in life's common crises ordinary mortals undergoing 
strains it later unnerves them to recall? The energy 
rate does fluctuate ; occasions make the weak strong. 

Increased effort, it may be claimed, means increased 
fatigue. " Everything has its price and you cannot 
cheat nature with a lead nickel." But some men seem 
to have tapped reservoirs of power. They have ener- 
gized vigorously, and for years, and apparently have 
not been becalmed in the fatigue zone. Do they not 
prove that the energy line may be advanced and the 
fatigue line delayed, and that within this zone may 



INCREASING ENERGY 37 

dwell a race of dynamic men? Life begins with the 
acceleration of oxidation in the egg, and in this increase 
lies the hope of more life. 

Obviously, this is a matter of considerable practical 
importance. If the energizing rate can be doubled, 
for instance, — a possibility confirmed by biographers, 
observation, and perhaps through the reader's personal 
experience as well, — it is making two men live where 
before was but one. The means for realizing this higher 
level, moreover, lie close at hand. They are four in 
number and will be discussed in turn. 



I. A STIMULATING ENVIRONMENT 

Exceptional achievement follows hard upon excep- 
tional stimuli ; or stated in terms of social environment, 
results from unusual incentive. A monotonous environ 
ment produces listless men; but a stimulating social 
system, like a beautiful landscape, charms through its 
variety. There is differentiation, distinction. Among 
these distinctions, first place may be accorded wealth. 

Wealth. — In primitive society private property can 
scarcely be said to exist. What little the group pos- 
sessed, outside of ornaments, weapons, and scanty articles 
of clothing, was communal. But with the domestication 
of animals there became something individually worth 
while owning. Seizure, lordship, revenue, exchange, 
rise of the state and economic progress, all shaped its 
development from age to age. To-day not only it is 
the basis of economic life, but its influence permeates 
the social system. All desire to own. \ 

Added satisfaction comes from possessing that which 
is denied others. In the primitive forays, booty was 
not divided equally, but the champion received his 
extra share of plunder, presents, and land. " There is 



38 THE ENERGIZING LEVEL 

a custom prevailing among the several states, as well as 
among individuals," wrote Tacitus in the Germania, 
" to offer voluntary contribution of grain and cattle 
to their chiefs." There is a similar custom prevailing 
among the several states of the modern world, of bestow- 
ing upon their " chiefs " contributions of stocks and 
bonds and real estate holdings. A satisfied feeling 
of superiority over the humble trudger swells the self- 
regard of the " Silent Six " owner; and the brownstone 
front, the securities, the real estate holdings gently but 
persistently impress upon him, Thou hast done well. 
Authority. — That all men are equal and will be 
kept so by ideal social arrangements, is a view more 
enticing than well-founded historically. In fact, it is 
only among the most degraded tribes of mankind that 
a system of approximate equality is found. All others 
exhibit among their members differentiation and sub- 
ordination, a process which, expanding with civiliza- 
tion, in church and state and industry has developed 
hierarchies with centers of authority to tempt ambi- 
tious men. 1 There are openings on ahead, and men 
love to exercise authority. 

1 One of the most interesting attempts to combat this universal 
tendency is found in the history of English trade-unions. They were 
democracies of "the most rudimentary type, free alike from perma- 
nently differentiated officials, executive council, or representative assem- 
bly. The general meeting strove itself to transact all the business, 
and grudgingly delegated any of its functions either to officers or to 
committees. When this delegation could not longer be avoided, the 
expedients of rotation and short periods were used 'to prevent impo- 
sition' or any undue influence by particular members. In this earliest 
type of Trade Union democracy, wc find, in fact, the most childlike 
faith not only that 'all men are equal,' but also that 'what concerns all 
should be decided by all.'" Webb, Industrial Democracy, 8. 

But growing administrative and tactical needs demonstrated the 
futility of the old system. There was presented a choice between ineffi- 
ciency and disintegration, uncontrolled dominance of a personal dicta- 
tor, or an expert bureaucracy. Trade-union constitutions, consequently, 
have undergone a revolution. The powers of the general secretary have 



SOCIAL INCENTIVES 39 

Social Approval. — Society has drawn up an elaborate 
scale of rewards and punishments, the skillful use of 
which may be seen even in primitive groups. So highly 
approved is the sea-lion hunter of Kamchatka that many 
men engage in the dangerous occupation less for the 
sake of the meat than in order to gain renown. The 
picked warriors forming the advance line of the Ger- 
manic hosts were held in such esteem that, says Tacitus, 
the " epithet, which originally indicated number, has, 
by this circumstance, become a Title of Honour." The 
social position of a noted Polynesian chief was so exalted 
that no one dared to walk upright in the village when 
he was present, but all had to crouch down and crawl, 
and no cries or noise were permitted in his hearing. 
Differing from the Polynesian attitude merely in degree 
is the sentiment expressed in the old English couplet : 

" God bless the squire and his relations, 
Teach us to know our proper stations." 

In civilized life the social self is most deftly flattered 
and coaxed. As Clive, home from India, " had scarcely 
set foot in England before incense, so grateful to a man 
when offered by his country to mark that country's 
sense of the services he has endeavored to render her, 
impregnated the very air he breathed. The Court of 
Directors entertained him at a semi-royal public dinner. 
They presented him with a diamond-hilted sword of the 
value of five hundred guineas. They solicited his ad- 
vice with a deference which is only manifested by city 
men toward one whose merits have already forced 
themselves to the loftiest place in public approval." l 

been magnified and consolidated, a score of offices of varying power have 
been constructed, until nowhere is there found a more carefully graded 
hierarchy than in some of the modern "warring" labor camps. 
1 Malleson, Live of Clive, 144-145. 



4 o THE ENERGIZING LEVEL 

One need only compare the later prevailing attitude 
of Englishmen toward Clive when the " infamous mon- 
ster " was on trial, to appreciate the vast range of social 
approval. Cheering throngs, public receptions, crowded 
banquets, messages of congratulation, titles, decora- 
tions, degrees, interviews, press notices, and at life's 
eventide flags at half-mast, conspicuous sorrow, statues, 
and social ancestor worship — these let us compare 
with the hoots and jeers, the triumph of enemies, the 
loss of friends, the acid editorial, the silent contempt or 
neglect, and the grip of law. Here are two sets of influ- 
ences which, human nature as it is, 1 expand or shrivel 
the personal self, social approval so adjusted that it 
unceasingly stimulates. 

To those who believe in a forward-moving humanity, 
social life ever expanding, no problem perhaps can claim 
precedence over that of maintaining and perfecting a 
stimulating environment. For the welfare of the many 
/is bound up with the achievements of the few, and the 
^ supply of progressive geniuses is linked up with the de- 
mand for their services. The man who might have 
evolved a new transportation system, introduced im- 
proved manufacturing devices, revolutionized agricul- 
tural tillage, replaced outworn customs for new measures 
of religion, government, or social relations, may never 
feel the stimulus necessary to a creative genius and dies 
without realizing the possibilities of his nature. 

This question is worth the serious thought of those 

1 "I believe," writes Cooley, regarding the influence of the opinions 
of others, "that with all normal and human people it remains, in one 
form or another, the mainspring of endeavor and a chief interest of the 
imagination throughout life. As is the case with other feelings, we do 
not think much of it so long as it is moderately and regularly gratified. 
Many people of balanced mind and congenial activity scarcely know 
that they care what others think of them, and will deny, perhaps with 
indignation, that such care is an important factor in what they are and 
do. But this is an illusion." Human Nature and the Social Order, 177. 



PROVIDING INCENTIVES 41 

who would multiply restrictions upon the statute books, 
oppose a business merely because it is successful, curb 
crudely the thought of those who dare move along 
untrodden ways, hound the doer of exceptional things, 
and provide only the prize which all men may grasp. 
Where incentive is not, pygmy men stand at the tiller, 
and they drive no ship through prosperous seas. Now 
wealth, positions of authority, and social approval indi- 
cate merely three of the many measures through which 
a stimulating social system may be developed, and no 
legislator nor molder of public policy need lack practical 
means for supplying incentive. 

The result of increased stimulation is an intensifica- 
tion of the selective process. Many will be called that 
the better may be chosen. Added pressure will be 
brought to bear upon these better to become best. 
Leaders will be, and are, " forced " in the social green- 
house. Men, in turn, can accommodate themselves to 
the raised levels. Blood is supplied more copiously 
to the active organs. The higher psychic centers are 
better nourished, sensuality is lessened ; in energizing 
rate the usual approaches the maximum. With the 
redistribution of his vital energies, the individual comes 
to live in the upper stories of his house. He has sur- 
passed his old self, and under the lure of incentive been 
molded into a super-man. 



EXERCISES 

1. Is a stimulating environment compatible with socialism? 

2. Which is preferable, a policy of regulated monopoly or 
enforced competition? An income tax or an inheritance tax? 

3 . What stimulus comes from friends ? Followers ? Enemies ? 
Books? Parents? Teachers? Be specific. 

4. To what positions may the young alderman aspire? The 
office boy? The miner's apprentice? 



42 THE ENERGIZING LEVEL 

5. Is it preferable to attend an urban university or a small-town 
college? 

6. Is more expected of a large-sized man? Comment. 

7. Why are rival candidates usually both confident of victory 
in the coming elections? 

READINGS 

Ward, Applied Sociology, Ch. IX. 
Munsterberg, The Americans, Ch. XXIII. 



CHAPTER V 

The Increase of Power 

"Having been a rather sickly and awkward boy, I was as a 
young man at first both nervous and distrustful of my own prow- 
ess. I had to train myself painfully and laboriously, not merely 
as regards my body, but as regards my soul and spirit." 

— Theodore Roosevelt. 

In the preceding chapter we noted the influence of a 
stimulating environment. It is now our purpose to 
follow this stimulation into the individual mind; for 
the individual under the stimulation of environment is 
not a passive factor, nor does he, as an inert mechanism, 
merely pass on the force which has been communicated 
to him. The organism through life is active ; the body 
is in incessant flux, built up of unstable elements, and 
the brain cells must transform their contents into energy 
of some sort. The restless passion for reshaping and 
subduing which Alexander exhibited is true of most 
eager spirits ; activity is normal. 

II. THE LUMINOUS IDEA 

Ideas gained from the environment do not rest in the 
mind as so much baggage. They are dynamic; each 
one of them tends to realize itself through action, and it 
will do so if not opposed. Hence an idea of a pecul- 
iarly compelling sort enlists energetic action and leads 
to tangible results. Such an idea we may say is luminous. 

43 



44 THE INCREASE OF POWER 

It shines and lures. To Napoleon it was his star of 
destiny, seen on all great occasions. " It commands 
me to go forward and is a constant sign of my good for- 
tune, and led by it, I behold the world beneath me as if 
I were being carried through the air." To Garibaldi it 
was Italy, to O'Connell it was Ireland, to Pitt it was 
Parliament, to Webster it was a united country, to Clay 
it was glowing conception of national destiny. To Lord 
Nelson, it was the service of king and country, which, 
born in a period of despair, ever afterwards was sus- 
pended, as he said, " before my mind's eye as a radiant 
orb that courted me onward to renown." 

Such terms as " our country," " democracy," " equal- 
ity," " freedom," " social justice," have stimulated gen- 
erations of public men, and without doubt will continue 
so to do. But the luminous idea itself is universal. The 
merchant finds inspiration in business efficiency, the 
editor in the reforms he espouses; the teacher sees in 
the youths before him splendid men of to-morrow ; and 
among the test tubes and compound microscopes the re- 
search worker has visions of germ conquests. The lumi- 
nous idea is merely one with power to draw men onward, 
and each may possess it. 

Its Characteristics. — This idea should, for one thing, 
be (i) Clear. The idea which has a power within the 
mind is one sifted from the maze and clearly perceived. 
The mental process, at first thought, would seem difficult, 
since evolving central notions requires a high order of 
intelligence. Yet the idea need only seem clear to its 
possessor. Practically any mind, by ruminating on 
the materials with which it is stocked, yields generaliza- 
tions later held as self-evident truths. A recent presi- 
dential aspirant, for instance, states that " after twenty- 
five years study I find the supreme issue, involving all 
others, is the encroachment of the powerful few upon 



THE IMPULSE OF IDEAS 45 

the rights of the many " — and he continues to wage 
war with this as a slogan. 

It may be pointed out that because in these times 
of reconstruction ministers as a class are too often with- 
out the clear and positive idea, hypocrisy stalks about 
in many a declining church. Similarly these are recon- 
structive days in politics, education, law, and business, 
which means that here, too, is the unsettled opinion. 
What our social life most needs is a more clearly defined 
set of values, with which, forward facing and positive, 
men may transact life's business with vigor. 

(2) Narrow. Every fact indeed is connected up 
with all other facts; but only the thinker threads his 
way through the complexities in which each particu- 
lar problem is immersed. The executive type ignores 
the qualifications, brushes complexities aside as " aca- 
demic " ; he is " practical," trusts in " common sense," 
and without further loss of time sets about focusing 
effort upon the " paramount issue." 

The idea thus held may be distorted, it is true, but it 
brings results. It has been said that Thomas Jefferson 
was egotistical and confident because he had convinced 
himself that he was a genuine and successful benefactor 
of mankind, — the teacher of a great gospel that, like 
the Sermon on the Mount, embodied all the science 
of government and human morality. But Jefferson 
held an idea which enabled him to accomplish. 

(3) Interesting. Multitudes of ideas press for rec- 
ognition ; but those of interest alone are welcomed, and 
of these only the most interesting write the plan book of 
life. Of the remainder, some are rendered subordinate ; 
most are suppressed and, so far as motivation is con- 
cerned, become practically non-existent. But the idea 
selected and elevated over others, whether it be " United 
Italy," a presidency, the home on the hillside, " Social 



46 THE INCREASE OF POWER 

Justice," or what not, is able to stir consciousness and 
provides the onward impulse. 

Its Power. — Just as a medical student courts the 
society of physicians and the young lawyer seeks his 
kind, so the leader immerses himself in the atmosphere 
of his major theme. This to him is both necessary and 
easy; necessary, because complexities and frequent 
change of policy spell confusion among followers, and 
easy, because, once provided with a luminous idea, these 
followers reflect it upon the leader until, as in the solar 
motor, he is the objective upon which play a thousand 
beams. Accomplishment is then powerfully stimulated. 
This " led by a star of destiny," this rapture over work, 
v / this faith in ultimate victory, favorably affects the 
viscera. Brain, heart, and stomach receive the effi- 
ciency stimulus. " I have, indeed/' said Daniel 
O'Connell, "a glowing and — if I may use the expres- 
sion — an enthusiastic ambition, which converts every 
toil into a pleasure, and every study into an amuse- 
ment." 

This idea, moreover, is kept gradually advancing. 
Mohammed's dream expanded with his fortunes, some- 
thing true, no doubt, of many men. Yet there are those 
who, in a small environment, win the " big " victory, 
realize the idea, are lulled to sleep by the plaudits of the 
circumscribed, and thus come to spend their life in a cove. 
It is the exceptional man who, after local victory, 
spurns his neighbors' chloroform and plants his idea 
where it dominates a wider scope. 

HI. THE WILL IN ACTION 

A luminous idea normally enlists the will, since 
volition, as has been pointed out by James, in its last 
analysis consists simply in voluntary attention to an 



ROUSING THE WILL 47 

idea. Alexander fastened his mind upon the result 
desired and, as by autosuggestion, clearly saw it as an 
accomplished reality; Cromwell was almost fatalistic 
in his belief that " God's cause " would conquer. " His 
Majesty," wrote Stenbach of Charles XII, "seems to 
receive his inspiration from God alone; and has got 
the idea of a war so firmly fixed in his head that he can 
attend to nothing else." Need we wonder that such 
men are characterized by strong wills? It would be 
queer indeed were such not the case. 

Within the organism exist stores of energy ordinarily 
untouched because not reached by the usual nerve stim- 
uli. But increased stimulation unlocks these stores, 
the will in this way being able to develop power. The 
means for securing this increased power may be stated 
as follows : 

(1) The Set Task. A certain task set for per- 
formance becomes in turn the stimulus for its accom- 
plishment. The ancient Teutons, amid song and drink, 
boasted of forthcoming deeds. The Catti, tribesmen 
of Gaul, by leaving hair and beard uncut until after 
the death of an enemy, possessed, Tacitus says, a " prom- 
ise of heroic action." Wolfe disgusted the British states- 
men by boasts of what victories would follow his com- 
mand in America ; and then won those victories. John 
Quincy Adams, one of the most lonely and desolate 
of the great men of history, set for himself the most 
exacting tasks, and actually toward the close of his 
term he spoke of his trying, daily routine as constituting 
a very agreeable life. These set tasks, this being on rec- 
ord before others and making promises to oneself of 
what shall be done, have a result-getting value. They 
stiffen the will. 

(2) The Blocked Retreat. No wild animal puts 
forth supreme effort until brought to bay by the snarl- 



48 THE INCREASE OF POWER 

ing pack. Nor does any man push his task with maxi- 
mum energy while one eye surveys the avenues of re- 
treat. But with retreat blocked and back to wall, men 
have so wrought that the accomplishment, once passed, 
fills them with amazement. The assistant, upon the 
death of the great divine, is compelled to ascend the 
pulpit; the subordinate in the factory is compelled to 
assume large duties when the head official severs his con- 
nection with the firm. Pulpit and office chair, to the 
young men upon whom the new responsibilities rest, 
become a forcing house for power. It is because unusual 
demands are thus met by a welling up of power from 
within that " shoulder responsibility " is a good motto 
and " burn your bridges behind you " a means toward 
greater accomplishment. 

(3) Faith in Self. Men of capacity often have that 
sublime faith in self which in little minds is mere arro- 
gance. " I am sure that I can save this country," said 
the Earl of Chatham, " and that nobody else can." 
His son possessed a like confidence : "I place much 
dependence on my new colleagues," said Pitt; " I place 
still more dependence upon myself." 

Witness also Bismarck at thirty-six, seemingly undip- 
lomatic and unskilled, offering to undertake " anything 
which the King felt strong enough to propose to him " ; 
Mohammed, branded as a pretender and threatened with 
death, declaring " though they should array the sun 
against me on my right hand and the moon on my left, 
yet until God should command me or should take me 
hence, would I not depart from my purpose " ; Louis XIV, 
for a time after the peace of Nimwegen, believing he was 
permitted by God to undertake any scheme no matter 
how daring ; or Webster's public declaration, " I am 
quite aware that I am a man of considerable public 
importance, not only within the boundaries of Massa- 



IMPULSIVENESS 49 

chusetts, but without her boundaries, and throughout 
the length and breadth of this continent.'' 

Such faith in self, a compound of strong desire and 
belief in one's ability to attain it, makes men of iron 
resolution. 

(4) The Impulsive Temperament. The tendency is 
for action to follow upon desire in a simple and ready 
sequence. But some natures are so apprehensive con- 
cerning all possible contingencies and consequences 
that the will becomes sicklied over with the pale cast of 
thought. 

"The centipede was happy quite 

Until the toad for fun 
Said, 'Pray, which leg goes after which ?' 

Which worked her soul to such a pitch 
She lay distracted in the ditch, 

Considering how to run." 

Successful executives ordinarily are not typified by 
the musing Hamlet. The impulsive Moody, the free- 
dom-loving, unchastened and romantic Garibaldi, the 
jovial William the Silent, the Cromwell who impressed 
strangers as if he " hath taken a bit of wine too much," 
the cheery, exuberant Clay, the strenuous Roosevelt, 
represent action, not the obstructed will. They have 
not inhibited decision in order that the intellect might 
wander in a maze of speculation, but rather their wills 
react healthily. As Lord Palmerston wrote, apparently 
explaining his own procedure: " I believe weakness and 
irresolution are, on the whole, the worst faults that 
statesmen can have. A man of energy may make a wrong 
decision, but, like a strong horse that carries you rashly 
into a quagmire, he brings you by his sturdiness out on 
the other side." 

(5) Intensity of Conviction. It is one thing to yield 



50 THE INCREASE OF POWER 

intellectual assent and another to believe with convic- 
tion. In the latter, mere assent is intensified by emo- 
tion. " A hot flash seems to burn across the brain/' as 
Bagehot puts it. " Men in these intense states of mind 
have altered all history, changed for better or worse the 
creed of myriads, and desolated or redeemed provinces 
and ages. Nor is this intensity a sign of truth, for it 
is precisely strongest in those points in which men differ 
most from each other. John Knox felt it in his anti- 
Catholicism, Ignatius Loyola in his anti-Protestantism ; 
and both, I suppose, felt it as much as it is possible to 
feel it. . . . 

" We should utilize this intense emotion of convic- 
tion as far as we can. Dry minds, which give an in- 
tellectual ' assent ' to conclusions, which feel no strong 
glow of faith in them, often do not know what their 
opinions are ; they have every day to go over the argu- 
ments again, or to refer to a notebook to know what 
they believe; but intense convictions make a memory 
for themselves, and if they can be kept to the truths of 
which there is good evidence, they give a readiness of 
intellect, a confidence in action, a consistency in char- 
acter, which are not to be had without them." 1 

Opportunities for setting tasks, cutting off retreats, 
holding faith in self, unclamping the will, and believing 
with intensity, come to all of us. When such opportuni- 
ties are utilized, as in some measure at least may readily 
be done, the will becomes an instrument productive of 
power. 

IV. INFLUENCE OF EMOTION 

The influence of emotion, coming now to the last of 
the four factors upon which power depends, is a matter 
of common observation. The train wreck, the great 

1 Religious and Metaphysical Essays, II, 326-338, passim. 



THE ATMOSPHERE OF POWER 51 

fire, the attack on national honor, temporarily at least 
change mediocres into heroes. The experience of An- 
toine Gerle is typical. A poor monk secluded in a 
monastery for nearly forty years, he quite lost his head 
in the turmoil of Paris, and, half-mad with excitement, 
became one of the leading orators of the Jacobin Club. 
Vergniaud, once too indolent to win high honors in 
school, a writer of poetry and social devotee when he 
should have prosecuted his divinity studies, a civil 
service appointee who quit his post because its drudgery 
disgusted him, having similarly had his imagination 
fired by the Revolution, became the great orator of the 
Jacobin party and took an infinity of trouble over his 
speeches. The indolent Danton could, as well, display 
enormous energy at a crisis, and he did so during the 
early days of June, 1793. Because of emotional power 
thus engendered it was possible for the revolutionary 
movement in France to be directed by men hitherto 
unknown. 

More so than other men, the leader is in position to 
derive power through the emotions, the chief reasons 
perhaps for his superior opportunity being as follows: 

(1) Constructiveness and Self-assertion. The organ- 
ism has numerous instincts, the satisfaction of which 
causes pleasure and their obstruction pain, and whose 
promptings consequently constitute a never ceasing 
driving force. These instincts, moreover, being plastic, 
are modifiable. Hence in their waxing or waning they 
may assume different motivation values. 

Now management as an experience thoroughly stim- 
ulates two instincts, constructiveness and self-assertion. 
Men love to feel themselves a cause, to see a new product 
shaped under their direction; and they draw pleasure 
from rising triumphant over more and more obstacles, 
from extending the dominant personality over yet 



52 THE INCREASE OF POWER 

vaster ranges of control. As was true of our recent 
strenuous President, most men's blood tingles when 
the reins of leadership touch their hands. 

(2) The Focus of Emotion. A leader is apt to be 
immersed in an emotion stirred atmosphere. But more 
than this, because of the masses' tendency to think in 
simple terms and concentrate their opinions of move- 
ments into estimates of one person, he occupies a focal 
point. However praiseworthy the private is conceded 
to be, public opinion lauds the victorious general. The 
people of a city are easily kept interested in their mayor ; 
the alderman does not excite popular fancy. In this 
way, whatever of censure or approval is visited upon the 
organization falls upon its chief with redoubled effect. 

(3) Attitudes of Power. Every emotion has a phys- 
ical resultant ; but similarly has every movement its 
mental correlate. " I have often observed," wrote 
Burke, " that, on mimicking the looks and gestures of 
angry, or placid, or frightened, or daring men, I have 
involuntarily found my mind turned to that passion 
whose appearance I strove to imitate ; nay, I am con- 
vinced it is hard to avoid it, though one strove to sepa- 
rate the passion from its corresponding gestures." l 
According to this point of view, the bodily manifesta- 
tion causes the corresponding emotion. Look brave 
and you feel brave ; assume the posture of grief and 
that emotion will soon steal upon you. 2 

Now a leader is constantly assuming attitudes of power. 
He stands prominently before followers : Napoleon on 
the hillock, Burke in Parliament, Bryan on the Chau- 
tauqua platform. His fist it is which thumps the chair- 
man's stand, his chest which throws the resonant voice 
into the far confines of the great hall, his muscles which 

1 Sublime and Beautiful, cited by James, Psychology, II, 464. 
2 Cf. James, ibid., Ch. XXV. 



EFFORT UNCEASING 53 

assume the " come-on-boys " position. From these 
positive bodily attitudes he draws emotional power, 
in this way realizing in daily practice that unto him 
that hath it shall be given. 

POWER DEVELOPED 

Power, we may now conclude, is neither fixed nor 
inherent, but is fluctuating and can be developed. Its 
basis is revealed in the view that the body is a chemical 
machine ; its amount depends in part upon the size of 
this chemical machine and in part upon the efficiency 
with which it operates. This operation in turn is sub- 
ject to acceleration, the increased motivation being 
due to a stimulating environment, the luminous idea, 
the will, and the emotions. These four constitute what 
may be termed an atmosphere of power, men momen- 
tarily being caught up into it, and while thus influenced 
surpassing their ordinary selves. But these flashes of 
power may be made permanent levels of accomplish- 
ment, and from their old selves men rise to a new plane 
of being. 1 

EXERCISES 

i . How develop and train the will ? (James, Talks to Teachers 
on Psychology, Ch. XV.) 

2. Contrast in specific terms Hamlet with some successful 
executive. 



1 This would mean, during working hours, effort without ceasing, a 
prospect directly opposed to much current talk of overwork, vacations, 
nervousness, and other mental disorders. Nevertheless the opinion of 
psychologists is shifting toward the view that such effort is not only 
possible, but can be continued without injury. 

"The more the mind does," said William James, "the more it can 
do." 

"In my practice as physician in nervous and mental diseases," ob- 
serves Dr. Boris Sidis, "I can say without hesitation that I have not 



54 THE INCREASE OF POWER 

3. What causes periods of business uncertainty? How secure 
religious positiveness ? 

4. In what fact does the value of Christian Science consist? 

5. In maintaining the positive emotional state discuss the 
value of humor. Freedom. The evaluating of critics. Empha- 
sizing success and minimizing failure. Inspirational atmosphere. 
Life philosophies. 

6. Outline a practical plan for increasing power. 

READINGS 

James, Memories and Studies, Ch. X. 

Roosevelt, Autobiography, Ch. II. (Outlook, March 22, 1913, 
660-674.) 

met a single case of nervous or mental trouble caused by too much 
thinking or overstudy. What produces nervousness is worry, emotional 
excitement, and lack of interest in the work." 

"My rules for being able to work all the time," states Professor 
Thorndyke, "are: 

"Sleep all that is possible. 

" Get rid of all physical ills. 

"When one interest flags, find a new one. 

" Always keep on hand a supply of motives or desires. 

" Never learn by a roundabout method what can be learned directly. 

" Never allow the mind to dwell on a subject that may not be useful. 

" Waste no effort. Never worry. Never become excited unneces- 
sarily. 

" Think out what should be done and then do it without talking about it. 

" In a word," he concludes, " the whole doctrine is : Interest and motive 
for efficiency, and for protection sleep." 



CHAPTER VI 

Effective Effort 

"Get your principles right; the rest is a matter of detail." 

— Napoleon. 

The discussion of individuality to this point has 
concerned itself chiefly with the energy element. It is 
now pertinent to consider the use to which this energy 
shall be put. For only power effectively directed brings 
results ; and managers must meet the result test. Work, 
hustle, get things done — this has been the ideal of the 
American executive. But mere hustling means waste ; 
things " done " are often done wrong. Hence the era 
of crude activity is being superseded by a system of 
effectiveness in effort. 

POWER AS NEEDED 

This ideal of effectiveness applies first to the develop- 
ment of power itself. It is evident that energy is not 
fixed in quantity, but fluctuating, and that the indi- 
vidual, less completely, it is true, but still somewhat like 
the mechanical engineer, can control the power output. 
But what fireman would turn on forced draft and in- 
crease stoking when his engine had no load? Steam 
boilers work at continuous maximum capacity only 
when under continuous maximum load. Yet have we not 
seen men — ourselves perhaps guilty as well — running 
their bodily engines at full speed regardless of the load ? 

55 



56 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

The mere prospect of a task too often serves as an order 
" full steam ahead." Unresisted, this order dissipates 
one's energies before the race is on. 

Power, to the contrary, may and should be developed 
as needed. The dashing Garibaldi, if the encampment 
was far from the scene of danger, lay stretched out under 
his tent; in the Pullman which carried him to the Chicago 
convention of 191 2 Colonel Roosevelt retired early ; 
during the Baltimore convention, when the deadlock 
and long hours had thrown men into high tension, Bryan 
came to his room, threw off his coat, and, oblivious to 
the bustle of delegates around him, slept soundly for an 
hour. It is in such control that the first directive 
requirement is met, that power be developed as needed. 1 

ALERTNESS 

The outside world plays upon men's minds incessantly, 
sending its- stimulations through their sense organs. 
But marked difference is shown in responding to these 
stimulations; though they travel the same road to- 
gether men do not all see the same things. That member 
of a group who reacts most advantageously is better 

1 In this connection the qualitative element should be noted. Says 
James: "The words 'energy' and 'maximum' may easily suggest only 
quantity to the reader's mind, whereas in measuring the human energies 
of which I speak, qualities as well as quantities have to be taken into 
account. Every one feels that his total power rises when he passes to a 
higher qualitative level of life. . . . Writing is higher than walking, 
thinking is higher than writing, deciding 'no' higher than deciding 'yes' 
— at least the man who passes from one of these activities to another will 
usually say that each later one involves a greater clement of inner work 
than the earlier one, even though the total heat given out or the foot- 
pounds expended by the organism may be less . . . inner work, though 
it so often reinforces outer work, quite as often means its arrest. To 
reflex, to say to ourselves (with the ' new thoughters ') , ' Peace ! be still ! ' 
is sometimes a great achievement of inner work." Memories and Studies, 
234-235 passim. 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT 57 

able to direct the others and thus becomes a leader 
because of quicker response to stimuli. As Henry IV 
burst forth when he received threat of war from the 
Spanish king, " Let your master have a care, I should 
be in the saddle before his foot touched the stirrup." 
While the significance of a situation is slowly dawning 
upon an ordinary mind, the alert intellect has already 
seized it at the psychological moment. " Fortune," 
declared Cortes, " favors the daring." The Alexanders 
set too fast a pace for the Dariuses. 

This quick response to stimuli permits dispatch. With 
big enterprises to manage, there is distinct advantage 
in the mind which comprehends quickly and then 
reacts with vigor. Such mental organization insures 
volume in accomplishment, gives up-to-dateness, and 
outdistances competitors. 1 

It also makes for effective expenditure. In the control 
of men there is what may be termed the psychological 
moment, a tide which, taken at the flood, leads on to 
results. The salesman is alert to it, shrewdly timing 
his command, " Sign right here " ; the orator in his 
dramatic climaxes, the strategist in his campaign plans, 
the foreman in punishing the rule breaker, each moves 
in accordance with the same principle. The executive 
spends no energy in a losing fight, but like a wise hus- 
bandman harvests results when the grain is ripe. 

The quickness of response, in addition, permits fuller 
utilization of opportunities. Opportunities come not 
singly but in series, — the old motto notwithstanding, 
— and the great man is he who deftly turns every offer- 

1 E. H. Harriman as chairman conducted the most rapid-fire meet- 
ings ever held in the financial district. Discussion, if ventured at all, 
usually ended with: "Oh, I knew all about that. It's all right. Let's 
put it through!" And through it went. A member of the executive 
committee once timed the proceedings and found that it took thirty-six 
seconds to appropriate six millions for equipment. 



58 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

ing into results for his own. In factory and counting 
house, quite as truly as on gridiron or diamond, it 
seems the most successful men make the promptest 
use of the ideas which come to them. 

ORIGINALITY 

New ideas are rare, the development of one general- 
ization, it is said, being sufficient to make a man famous 
in science. Yet this is a changing and progressive world ; 
a manager is consequently forced to venture upon the 
unknown, and in making new adjustments show origi- 
nality. Whence is derived this originality? 

It is, for one thing, natural. In the facts of birth and 
variation, originality is to' be expected. It would be 
realized more often, without doubt, were it not for the 
rigid insistence upon conformity practiced by home, 
church, and school. " I think I was as well brought up 
as most children," said Henry Ward Beecher, " because 
I was let alone." May we not say he was better brought 
up than most children, and that in a wider adoption of 
this policy originality would flourish? 

But shades of the social-convention prison house 
usually inclose the growing boy. His spontaneity is 
chilled or rudely repressed, his intelligence fed upon 
materials unrelated to his own life and hence lacking 
in vitality. Does it not seem culpable, for instance, 
that much of our meager stock of developmental methods 
should have been worked out in schools for imbeciles? 

Yet originality is a most precious possession ; regarded 
as natural, some seem to retain it by escaping the usual 
training, resisting the cramp of routine, or insisting upon 
self-assertion. 

Much depends also upon openness to impressions. 
Early in his railroading career young Cassatt, late 



GETTING NEW IDEAS 59 

president of the Pennsylvania system, made it his 
business to be the most approachable of division super- 
intendents. No man was ever more sought after by 
cranks and geniuses alike, with their models of auto- 
matic couplers, sleeping cars, tanking and signaling 
systems. He was willing to seek through chaff to find 
wheat. He made it a rule, moreover, to be even more 
accessible to his own petty employees. Brakemen, 
switch tenders, trackmen, all found the door to his pri- 
vate office open, and their practical suggestions enabled 
many an innovation to reach its highest value. 

Here is a method which most executives adapt to fit 
their needs. On every hand are ideas, plans, methods, 
which these men quickly recognize of value; their 
openness of mind yields them with little cost a rich har- 
vest. 

A more positive plan consists in the active seeking of 
new ideas. A noted advertising man — advertising of 
all businesses being one which demands originality 
— clips every illustration which contains a figure, a 
pose, a layout, or an idea of any kind that he finds 
stimulating. These nuggets of thought, embryo ideas, 
brilliant quotations and epigrams, bright articles, 
striking phrases, clever write-ups, he classifies and pastes 
on great wooden leaves on the wall — nine hundred 
square feet of the brain, experience, and knowledge 
product of his leading fellow craftsmen. 

Original ideas unfold in the educational trip, the late 
book, the magazine article, the conference, the new 
friend. " When I get hold of a man who is versed in 
the Word of God," said Moody, " I just pump him." 

Securing suggestions from subordinates is another 
method. Suggestion box, questionnaire, call to confer- 
ence, are among the means employed. " Bringing this 
down to actual factory management," says Superinten- 



60 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

dent Field of the Illinois Steel Co., "we try to get this 
feeling into our men by always stimulating the initiative 
in them. We are ready to pay the cost of anything that 
any of our men may make in our line and then the patent 
belongs to him, we receiving only the shop rights for 
use of the patent in these shops of ours here, and he 
having the right to sell the patent or to receive royalty 
from its use anywhere else he chooses." * So far have 
some executives carried this plan that the thought 
atmosphere of the establishment has been transformed. 
All become cooperators in the development of new 
ideas. 

A plan still more direct is the systematic production of 
new ideas. In the stories, long-haired inventors slip 
into the office, willing to lay wonderful secrets before the 
prosaic executive who rebuffs them. As a matter of 
fact, executives find such a source of supply inadequate. 
Only by experimental methods, special laboratories, 
libraries, observation trips, and trained researches can 
their needs be met. Hence invention is reduced to a 
science, is placed upon the basis of the salary check, and 
made to pay. 

All these means may be prolific in ideas, but they in- 
sure no permanency in the executive mind. Here 
arises the problem of retention, a serious question since 
a meager stock usually is not due to lack of impressions 
so much as our letting them escape us. Some have a 
tenacious memory, others may cultivate it, still others 
may make use of mnemonic devices. 2 

1 Business Mail's Library, IX, 53. 

2 A notebook was Phillips Brooks' inseparable companion, and it is 
said the signs of his intellectual and spiritual growth may be traced in 
their multiplication. 

Henry Ward Beecher's little notebook was "full of sketches of ser- 
mons, hints, subjects, themes, with occasionally a fully drawn-out skele- 
ton. His pocket was generally half full of letters, and on the back of 



A WELL-STOCKED MIND 61 

The great storehouse of impressions, however re- 
ceived, is the subconscious. Within its mystic cham- 
bers are packed all our yesterdays. From its winnowed 
materials leaders have developed those strange bursts 
of power such as Webster's masterful reply to Hayne, 
a speech occupying four hours and filling seventy octavo 
pages, yet practically extemporaneous. Webster had 
long steeped himself in the ideas of this speech, so much 
so that his whole life was really spent in preparation 
for it. Others may do as Webster, faithfully immersing 
their minds in law, accounting, scientific management, 
or what not, feeling secure that in time of need their 
subconscious will not fail them. 

Moreover, in the rearranging of these subconscious 
thought materials is the possibility of a new and effective 
combination, the bringing forth of an original concep- 
tion. This usually is the fruit of musing and solitude. 
The brilliant schemes of Cecil Rhodes were in the main 
developed during morning rides over the mountains in 
South Africa. Riding alone across the deserted slopes, 
with the stupendous works of nature frowning down 
upon him, Rhodes was able to commune with himself 
in peace. He recognized what many a harassed execu- 
tive has not yet grasped, that a thought to serve best 
must needs be well matured. 

Originality is rare, and the commonplace ever abides 
with us. But retaining in some measure freshness of 
viewpoint, cultivating openness to impressions, seeking 
the new, preventing the escape of impressions, and [ 
maturing thought combinations within the subconscious, 
all are means by which the brain becomes a thought 
factory and origination is maintained. 

from one to half a dozen of these, thoughts for sermons were jotted down 
as they struck him in the cars, the hotels, the steamboat." 

William F. Stead once wrote that a man without mnemonic devices 
was an intellectual prodigal. 



62 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

FOCALIZATION 

Granted that the thought currents, however, be made 
to play freely upon the executive brain, by their mere 
volume is one not in danger of distraction and conse- 
quent nervous breakdown? Such in truth is the fate 
of many managers ; they sink beneath the ideas which 
pour in upon them. Each generation has a vaster 
social heritage to encompass, more far reaching and 
intricate relationships to which adjustments must be 
secured ; and since men are born young and ignorant, 
the demands upon them exceed their powers. 1 Thus 
they are tormented with difficulties — always have been, 
always will be — and turn with relief to whatever 
pilot is able to chart a clear course over troubled seas. 
Men in general do not wish to deliberate, to weigh and 
balance against each other a score of different proposi- 
tions. They prefer a clear-cut statement upon which 
action may follow, even wrong action being more com- 
fortable than no action, and if this statement be not 
clear and simple, they prefer that it be made so, even 
at the cost of distortion. 2 

The demand here made upon the executive is that he 
enter this complex field and systematize it ; that, guide 

ia We, the foremost labourers in creating this civilization," wrote 
Sir Francis Galton, "are beginning to show ourselves incapable of keep- 
ing pace with our own work. The needs of centralization, commu- 
nication, and culture call for more brains and mental stamina than the 
average of our race possess. We are in crying want for a greater fund of 
ability in all stations of life; for neither the classes of statesmen, phi- 
losophers, artisans, nor labourers are up to the modern complexity of 
their several professions. An extended civilization like ours comprises 
more interests than the ordinary statesmen or philosophers of our present 
race are capable of dealing with, and it exacts more intelligent work 
than our ordinary artisans and labourers are capable of performing. 
Our race is overweighted, and appears likely to be drudged into degen- 
eracy by demands that exceed its powers." Hereditary Genius, 345. 
These words are even more true now than when Sir Francis penned them. 

2 Royce, Religious Aspects of Philosophy, 316-317. 



CONCENTRATED EFFORT 63 

and interpreter, he concentrate within himself all the 
vague aspirations, shadowy longings, and confused ideas 
of his organization, and as with a burning glass set 
them forth with intensity. This is his most severe 
intellectual test. Whether it be the politician weighing 
the merits of free silver, direct primaries, social justice, 
anti-imperialism, or the new freedom as a taking issue, 
the advertiser or salesman listing the several merits of 
an article in order to select its best talking point, or again, 
a corporation president, after an elaborate statistical in- 
vestigation, with the aid of many plotted records deter- 
mining the new sales policy or wage scale, the mental 
process is the same — details are focalized into principles. 
Focalization unifies the leader's life and gives it in- 
tensity. The thought currents surge vigorously along 
the narrow familiar channels. Ordinary scruples, tri- 
fling entanglements, are swept aside. Under pressure, 
progress toward the goal is made, as was said of Alex- 
ander in his conquest of Asia, " with the fervid energy of 
a half-fanatic." Focalization provides the standard 
for measuring all passing phenomena. It never allows 
the deck hand to be master of the ship, neither does it 
seek to dispense with deck-hand services. It recognizes 
and makes use of all things in relation to the end in 
view. In this way men as social geniuses may synthe- 
size the greatness of their age and of their race. And 
in this same way, though in lesser degree, humble 
executives can direct coal yards, grocery stores, and 
bakeries more effectively than otherwise could have 
been. 

INITIATIVE 

Every organization head, be he merchant, manufac- 
turer, or political leader, with increased civilization 
bears a heavier burden. Focalization, it has just been 



64 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

shown, enables him to hold a firmer grip on his task. 
Yet, after all, the matter is one of degree only. How 
limited is the field in which knowledge is fully system- 
atized, focalized, and how vast are the jungles within 
every executive's thought kingdom ! Complete knowl- 
edge before every decision is indeed only a dream of the 
future ; meanwhile we must act. In the twilight zone, 
one follows the light he has. Henry Clay, after examin- 
ing a question in only a surface manner, readily espoused 
one side of it, persuaded of the absolute correctness of 
his own opinion. He no doubt represents initiative over- 
done, but he inspired followers with a ready belief in his 
infallibility and accomplished much while others were 
merely agreeing that the question was complex. 

Truth is not full orbed ; but while we hesitate on the 
borderline of the unknown, the initiator surveys the 
broken arc, then boldly completes the circle. By using 
the same imperfect materials available to others, he 
constructs the bridge over which he invites all men to 
follow him. Thus was Luther, Alexander, the Christ; 
so were men led by De Lesseps, McCormick, Ingersoll, 
Bryan. His judgment may be wrong, it is true; but 
he removes doubt and exalts faith, and even in defeat 
he retains a mastery over men denied his hesitant and 
coldly calculating brother. 

EFFECTIVENESS ILLUSTRATED 

These mental processes, it may seem, spell rashness, 
and in the hands of the uninitiated they have frequently 
been followed by disaster. The very practical matter, 
in consequence, is how to wield them with effective- 
ness. From this point of view it is illuminating to 
study the plans followed by the Emperor Napoleon, 
for not only was he a marvelous example of every 



NAPOLEON AT WORK 65 

quality above mentioned but his mind worked with a 
rare precision. 

In the first place the Emperor had organized avast 
news gathering machine. Every legation had secret 
instructions to keep record continuously of troop move- 
ments which passed under its eyes or came to its knowl- 
edge. An important position in the cabinet was created 
for d'Ideville, whose duty it was to extract from the 
dispatches of these diplomatic agents particulars about 
the composition and movements of foreign armies. 
"The muster-rolls which M. d'Ideville succeeded in 
supplying," writes Meneval, "were drawn up with so 
much sagacity and accuracy that the Emperor knew the 
composition of foreign armies quite as well as that of 
the French." * 

During campaigns this secretary constantly followed 
Napoleon, questioning prisoners and country people, 
seizing every report and letter which the chances of 
war threw in his way. He bought off the enemy's spies, 
men like Schulmeister, a veritable turncoat, who not 
only went personally in search of information but set 
out a swarm of emissaries who, like himself, knew how 
to obtain entrance everywhere. In each army corps, 
moreover, were stationed confidential agents who went 
about and sent in news. The Emperor again and again 
ordered his marshals by every means within their power 
to gather data concerning the enemy and his movements. 
And as for his own Grand Army, not a day must pass 
without a detailed report, down to the last cantonment, 
being submitted to him. In short, through organization, 
reports, spies, interviews, secret agents, clipping bureaus, 
Napoleon provided the means for getting information, 
and urged his subordinates to' employ it continuously. 

To care for this incoming material and reduce it to 
1 Quoted by Vachee, Napoleon at Work, 100-101. 



66 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

usable form, the Emperor then developed a veritable 
statistical bureau. The material was sorted, summary 
statements drawn up and maps prepared, by secretaries 
who toiled with that assiduity characteristic of every- 
one around the Little Corporal. On halting from the 
march, "d'Albe saw to the installation of the Emperor's 
study. The portfolios containing papers, the maps, 
the two or three mahogany boxes with compartments 
in which was a traveling library, were spread out on 
tables when there were any, or on planks or doors sup- 
ported by trestles. In the middle of the room was a 
large table on which the best map of the seat of war was 
spread out. By means of colors, d'Albe had made clear 
on this map the position of rivers, mountains, or frontiers. 
This map was very accurately oriented before Napoleon 
entered, and with pins with heads of various colors there 
were marked, first of all the position of the different 
corps of the French army, and then of the positions of 
the enemy as far as they were known. At night time 
the map was surrounded by twenty candles, in the 
midst of which was a compass for measuring distances. 

"On the arrival of a dispatch d'Albe made a summary 
report, the Emperor following with his finger on the map, 
and moving amidst the pins the compass, the extent 
of which corresponded to the distance of a march." * 
In this rapid, graphic way he kept himself accurately 
informed of the Grand Army, the enemy and the sur- 
rounding topography. 

Meanwhile the Emperor was arriving at a decision, 
a flash of inspiration, if one judges by surface indications, 
a judgment pretty solidly supported if, to the contrary, 
his methods are considered. 2 "When his idea had 

1 Vachee, ibid., 97-98. 

2 It is significant to note in this connection that Napoleon never 
unduly forced himself to decide. Says Las-Cases: "The Emperor 
quickly acquainted himself with everything. He settled many things 



METHOD IN WORK 67 

reached maturity," Baron de Meneval tells us in his 
memoires, "he began to walk slowly about the room 
and traverse its entire length. He then began to dic- 
tate in a serious and emphatic voice, without resting 
for a moment. As inspiration came to him, his voice 
assumed a more animated tone, and was accompanied 
by a sort of habit, which consisted in a movement of 
the right arm, which he twisted, at the same time pul- 
ling the cuff of the sleeve of his coat with his hand. In 
rendering his thought, expressions came without effort. 
They were sometimes incorrect, but their very incorrect- 
ness added to the energy of his language, and even mar- 
velously described what he wished to say." * If while 
working in his study the time for departure arrived, the 
last word of his dictation had scarce fallen from his lips 
before he ordered sharply, "The carriage — to horse," 
and the secretarial staff rushed away as though set in 
motion by an electric current. 

METHODOLOGY 

Of Napoleon's tremendous accomplishment there is 
no doubt, yet after all was it due to certain mysterious 
mental operations or was it rather the result of incessant 
energy directed according to an excellent method? It 
is believed that the latter is the correct interpretation ; 
more than this, that the business executive is in position 
to surpass Napoleon in all the essentials of this method. 

in silence and threw aside everything which he considered useless. He 
read all letters himself, replying to some by a few words in the margin, 
and in the case of others dictating the reply. Those of great impor- 
tance were always put on one side, read twice, and never replied to until 
an interval had elapsed. He believed in the principle that it was neces- 
sary to sleep over things calculated to put one out of temper. Some- 
times he said 'until to-morrow, night brings counsel,' a customary phrase 
with him." Vach6e, ibid., 105-106. 
1 Quoted by Vachee, ibid., 103. 



68 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

Obviously, since this method enables the more general 
principles of effective effort to be put into practical 
application, it is well worth while to consider the ques- 
tion of methodology at this point : 

i. Securing Detailed Information. — The policy which 
insures adequate guidance to any organization is based 
upon facts, not imagination nor mere hear-say nor vague 
rumor. It is not a matter of chance, of a wild leap in 
the dark ; to be consistently successful this policy must 
rest upon verifiable evidence. The executive does not 
court first the inner vision, but shrewdly surveys the ob- 
jective world. From its abundance he can draw data. 

Happily, the means for securing these data are several. 
A well-known business man, who in addition to his 
duties as general manager is able to write books, con- 
tribute frequently to the magazines, and deliver numer- 
ous lectures, uses the clipping scheme. To each of the 
many subjects in which he is interested he assigns a 
number, and whenever in his reading he comes across 
anything of value bearing on one of these subjects he 
pencils in its appropriate number and turns it over to 
his secretary for filing. Sometimes the secretary copies 
the article, should it be, for instance, a brief extract in a 
book from which it is not desired to remove the pages. 
This plan is of special value to editors, teachers, and 
ministers, and at times proves very helpful to salesmen. 

The investigation is another source of information. 
The executive learns as he walks through the plant ; he 
also learns when he places the chemist with his reagents 
in a little room near by, or has a flat-chested young man 
poring over census reports in the library for him, or sets 
to work the scientific manager with his stop watch and 
four principles of efficiency. In getting information 
there is such a thing as knowing how, and these men in 
their field are expert. 



THE USE OF RECORDS 69 

Closely related to the investigator is the man able 
to give competent counsel. It was long the boast of the 
old-time manager that he knew every process as well 
as any of his men. A practical, well-rounded, self- 
reliant craftsman, he scorned to surrender his pre- 
rogatives to accountant, chemist, purchasing agent, 
lawyer, press agent or welfare worker. Yet the execu- 
tive's task has passed the one-man stage, and with 
its resulting division of labor has come about the neces- 
sity of securing the competent counselor and of drawing 
from his store of specialized information. 

Extremely servicable and almost universally used, 
at least in some form, are records. "When there are 
many hands," we read in Ecclesiasticus, "deliver all 
things in number and weight; and put all in writing 
that thou givest out or receivest in." This advice the 
business man diligently puts into practice; his orders, 
requisitions, purchases, invoices, investigations, follow- 
ups and employees all have their appropriately de- 
signed record blanks, an intricate and imposing array. 1 
The records tell the story. 

Of the several sources of information, of which the 
above may serve as illustrations, each executive chooses 
those which best meet his needs. The sermon builder 
scarce could use an accountant, nor would the public 
utility manager discharge his statistician, to rely upon 
newspaper clippings concerning municipal rates in 
Europe. Moreover, the editor who tills his office with 
unconsulted clippings, the manager whose employees 
record without discrimination every act, the census 
official piling governmental archives with data collected, 
then buried — show no recognition of the fact that infor- 

1 An excellent presentation of this subject of records, including 
numerous sample forms, is given by Schulze in Part III of his book, 
The American Office. See also works on accounting, such as Nicholson, 
Cost Accounting. 



70 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

mation is but a means to an end. First is the problem, 
next its thorough analysis, finally the gathering of that 
information upon which its solution depends. 

2. Making Information Usable. — The executive can- 
not spend his time poring over masses of details, even 
though it be granted every item is pertinent to his 
problem. These details must be classified, tabulated, 
summarized, a process in which the aim of manage- 
ment is one with the aim of science. Science would 
state the world of phenomena in shorthand symbols, 
management would develop throughout industry its 
standards of operation. It is in this respect that syn- 
thetic records and reports are of importance, they con- 
tain the essential facts compressed. "By scientific 
accounting," says James Logan of the United States 
Envelope Company, "the manufacturer scans the de- 
tails of his business with a vision multiplied many 
times. He looks through the accounts as a mariner 
looks through his reef -finding binoculars." 

In other words, at the executive's desk is focused in 
compact and usable form the facts upon which the 
effective guidance of his organization depends. 1 He 
is, as it were, at the front point of a great triangular 

1 "A prominent financier of New York City is said to have a large 
room, on the top floor of his residence, where the walls are completely 
covered with curve charts on which points are plotted as rapidly as data 
can be obtained. This man is so limited for time that he keeps in touch 
with general financial conditions by referring to the charts in this room 
for only a brief time each evening. He disappears to his reference room 
to meet his private secretary immediately after dinner. In the centre 
of the room is a revolving desk chair with an ash tray fastened to one 
arm. For the length of one cigar the financier sits in his chair slowly 
revolving the chair until he has covered the information given on all of 
the wall charts, perhaps, if necessary, asking a few brief questions of 
his secretary. Though very little of the financier's time is taken, he is 
able by concentrated thought on the facts shown by his wall charts to 
keep in full touch with world finance and to map out his own plans for 
future operation." Brinton, Graphic Methods, 306. 



PLANNING AND DISPATCHING 71 

advancing column, able to project himself into the un- 
known, to decide with safety upon policies for the future 
because of firm grip on the past and present. 

3. Planning and Dispatching. — The information, 
first made known, then made usable, is finally to be 
put into operation. This is a matter of planning and 
dispatching. The visitor to a railroad roundhouse may 
see hanging on the wall a large bulletin board, on which 
is posted the numbers of trains and engines, the names 
of engineers and firemen, and the times due out; just 
as in the time-table the traveler finds somewhat similar 
information of trains and stations. Meanwhile along 
the steel rails thunder that which gives the plan a 
reality, trains operating on schedule time; and in his 
office at the division point sits the chief dispatcher at 
his key, the master hand in this most wonderful example 
of planning and dispatching. The nature of their 
business forced railroads to adopt planning and dis- 
patching, and they found the method efficient. 

The bogy of " unproductive work" has retarded manu- 
facturers from realizing so fully as they might the bene- 
fits which systematic planning and dispatching hold 
for them. Yet factories in increasing number, and de- 
partment stores as well, have schedule boards, standard- 
practice instruction, route clerks and other of the ex- 
ternals indicating that the principle of planning and 
dispatching has been adopted. And here and there 
on the desk of a busy executive is found a daily work 
schedule, a sign that this same principle of planning 
and dispatching serves to increase one's personal effi- 
ciency. 

In briefest outline the problem of directing energy 
may now be summarized. Power is to be developed 
only as needed, its expenditure to take place at the most 
fruitful moment. Originality reveals numerous possi- 



72 EFFECTIVE EFFORT 

bilities, focalization determines which of these shall be 
pursued and realized. Initiative represents the manner 
in which the mental forces are marshaled, and the 
discussion of methodology indicates how this marshaling 
of forces, though rapid, may be safe and efficient. 
The general purpose of direction is to transform energy 
into results, but this aim includes the following chapter 
as well. 

EXERCISES 

i. Discuss: "A good executive has been described as a man 
who decides quickly and who is sometimes right." 

2. Are urban dwellers surface thinkers? 

3. How far in advance of present tasks should one have a 
general plan? A detailed plan? 

4. Is the sum total of wealth more or less valuable than knowl- 
edge of the means for producing it ? 

5. Trace to its origins one of our modern appliances. (Tylor, 
Anthropology, Chs. VIII or XIII.) 

6. Distinguish clearly between copying and adapting the 
methods of others. Why is the former more common and the 
latter more serviceable? 

7. Suppose in a factory you were trying to find the cost of pro- 
ducing a certain article. How would you analyze this problem ? 

READINGS 

Brinton, Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts, Ch. XIV, or 

Parsons, Business Administration, Ch. XX. 
King, Elements of Statistical Method, Part II, or Ward, Pure 

Sociology i Ch. XIX. 



CHAPTER VII 

Organization 

"Lasst jeden ganz das bleiben was er ist ; 
Er wacht nur driiber das er's immer sei 
Am rechten Ort ; so weiss er aller Menschen 
Vermogen zu dem seinigen zu machen." 

— Schiller. 

Effective relation among men is secured only through 
organization. Without it, effort is spasmodic and 
results are not had. Moreover, be it lowly organism, 
mob or factory, an undifferentiated structure means 
limited function. When more and more men, therefore, 
are drawn together to work as a unit, when these men 
must perform tasks of increased complexity, and when 
efficiency is sought in every process, executives find the 
only real solution lies in perfecting organization. 

To the manager, personally, this presents two problems. 
He usually commences as subordinate. Let him choose 
wisely his master, and guard well his spirit of initiative. 
For some masters prepare one for an age which has 
passed, and in grinding routine many a youth dissipates 
initiative and coggifies his life. However, advantages 
may be secured through organization, and these are to 
be made his. 

ADVANTAGES OF ORGANIZATION 

i. Through Organization a Leader multiplies Him- 
self. — The individual soon reaches the limits of his 

73 



74 ORGANIZATION 

activity. He may toil long hours at overloaded desk, 
but mere frantic effort avails little. When greater 
tasks face him, it becomes a choice between stepping 
aside or calling in help. 

Mirabeau was looked upon by the French as the 
Hercules of the Revolution. By his prodigious labors 
he is rightly so ranked. But Mirabeau had collected 
a veritable workshop of confidential agents, authors, 
and compilers. Frochat represented him in the Assem- 
bly, La March at court ; Dumont wrote his chief politi- 
cal speeches, the Abbe Lamourette those on the civil 
constitution of the clergy, Pellenc compiled, and Reyboz 
prepared even the famous speeches on the assignats, on 
the right of making war and peace, and the devolution of 
property of intestates. " Certainly," says Stephens, 
" no other man ever lived who found so many men 
willing to efface themselves merely to contribute to his 
glory" » 

This plan of Mirabeau's in its essentials — unifying 
the efforts of several upon a task too big for one — has 
been employed by every leader worthy of note from the 
primitive hunter, setting traps for elephants, to the 
present-day executive with thousands on his payroll. 
In this way puny efforts are multiplied until tasks of 
magnitude can be swung. 

2. By Organization the Division of Labor is made 
Possible. — It is not alone in amount of work, merely 
more men ; effective management also means gradation 
of work with a consequent gradation of men. Under 
such conditions, men specialize. No longer a Jack-of- 
all-trades, each man within the organization has a dis- 
tinct occupation: machinist, fireman, pattern maker, 
bookkeeper. Each occupation in turn may be still 
further subdivided, workmen spending their days mak- 

1 History of the French Revolution, I, 259-252. 



HABITS AND MACHINES 75 

ing heels of a shoe, rivets for an automobile, knobs for 
a bookcase, a minute part but never a whole article. 1 
Under such a regime, men may assume tasks well suited 
to their particular ability; they soon acquire the dex- 
terity of an expert, and they can be kept employed at 
the same task without interruption. Product is thereby 
increased without proportionate unit cost. 

Not all organizations, of course, lend themselves to the 
same division of labor ; but they all lend themselves to 
a division of labor. And in working out the grading 
best fitted to his organizations each executive faces an 
opportunity of considerable import. 

3. Organization permits the Substitution of Habits 
and Mechanical Contrivances for More Expensive Ner- 
vous Elements. — Initiation is a consumer of nervous 
force. It employs the whole organism. The individual 
always alert, casting out thought combinations as soon 
as once used and ever seeking new ones, lives distracted. 
But in the well-worn grooves of habit the mental machin- 
ery runs smoothly. This, management makes possible. 
Executives wrestle with the new and constantly changing 
demands, are alert to detect difficulty and quick to de- 
vise the proper thought combinations. The rank and 

1 In no industry has this been worked out more ingeniously than in 
meat-packing establishments. "The animal has been surveyed and laid 
off like a map," says Professor Commons ; "and the men have been clas- 
sified in over thirty specialties and twenty rates of pay from 16 cents 
to 50 cents an hour. The 50-cent man is restricted to using the knife 
on the most delicate parts of the hide (floorman) or to using the ax in 
splitting the backbone (splitter) ; and wherever a less skilled man can 
be slipped in at 18 cents, i8| cents, 20 cents, 21 cents, 22J cents, 24 
cents, 25 cents, and so on, a place is made for him and an occupation 
mapped out. In working on the hide alone there are nine positions at 
eight different rates of pay. A 20-cent man pulls off the tail, a 22! cent 
man pounds off another part where the hide separates readily, and the 
knife of the 40-cent man cuts a different texture and has a different 
' feel ' from that of the 50-cent men. Skill has become specialized to fit 
the anatomy." Trade Unionism and Labor Problems, 224. 



76 ORGANIZATION 

file thus make the required changes with a minimum 
of mental disturbance. A cheaper type of neural ac- 
tivity suffices. 

Especially noteworthy is this saving when mechanical 
contrivances can be substituted for mental processes. 
The adding machine's cogs remove burdens from brain 
cells. The calendar pad, the " tickler," the loose-leaf 
notebook, go far in providing a memory which never 
sleeps. The bulky ledger, the letter file, the stand- 
ardized sales argument set up in booklet form, the letter 
opener, the follow-up file, in fact all the equipment com- 
mon in organizations to-day, do these not mean a sub- 
stitution of inanimate for animate and thus make 
possible business units when magnitude would crush the 
strongest brain not thus supported? 

4. The Most Effective Plans and Policies usually are 
Combinations derived from Many Minds. — The one- 
man-all-sufficient type of control is narrow and danger- 
ous. Unto no man is given all knowledge, but by com- 
bining that which many have the fullness of truth may 
be approached. 

This is accomplished by the suggestion system, the 
council of war in the commander's tent, the meeting 
of corporation directors, department managers, or travel- 
ing salesmen in convention, by all plans which get into 
service the thought of the organization members. From 
such plans emerge a unified policy and a collective wis- 
dom. The process apparently is both slow and expen- 
sive, but, if properly conducted, it possesses neither of 
these defects. 

5. Organizations stimulate and stabilize Executives. — 
The stimulation derived from followers has been con- 
sidered on previous pages. But stimulation, in fact, is 
a reciprocal process in which executive and subordi- 
nates each in turn influence the other. By this action 



THINGS WELL DONE 77 

and reaction, intensity is maintained and continuous 
power developed. Men in groups, therefore, in organ- 
izations for ends political, religious, commercial, are 
more apt to reach and keep the higher energizing level. 

Groups are more stable than individuals, — a point 
to be considered more fully in later chapters, — and hence 
followers serve as balance wheels and make for conti- 
nuity. This may mean they smooth out the excessive 
aberrations of their chief. It may also mean the very 
practical task of management during his absence. It 
is no compliment to his ability for an executive to see 
disorder possess his organization the moment his hand 
is withdrawn. It is, however, a personal triumph to 
have constructed a machine itself able to direct affairs. 

By their stimulating and stabilizing effect organiza- 
tions thus make possible an increase in activity without 
corresponding loss in effectiveness. 

6. Organizing Ability permits Efficient Expenditure of 
Executive Energy, — According to the old motto, " any- 
thing which is worth doing at all is worth doing well " 
— but this is no guide whatever for the executive. 
Examination of property before purchase is worth doing ; 
but the shrewd dealer has taken in the salient features, 
closed the deal, and is considering two new purchases, 
before minute scrutiny would declare the first task well 
done. Writing a letter is worth doing ; but the stenog- 
rapher shapes many a letter from merest indications, 
the manager pens only his signature — and oftentimes 
a rubber stamp suffices for that. The real test of effort 
is the getting of results, each unit of energy being ex- 
pended for maximum returns. 

Organization makes this possible. It permits a rank- 
ing of tasks according to their importance, a ranking of 
men according to their ability to deal with particular 
problems, an emphasizing of efforts according to their 



a 



78 ORGANIZATION 

respective returns. And the executive, as the master 
planner and combiner, thus has wide latitude in which 
to realize the ideal of effort expended according to the 
law of diminishing returns. 

Because of these very real advantages organization 
assumes significance whenever enterprise passes the 
one-man stage ; the greatest of leaders have shown 
themselves especially skillful in its use. The phalanx 
of Epaminondas elevated Thebes, and improved by 
Alexander won Macedonian supremacy; this phalanx 
in turn fell before the more flexible legion, and with the 
new fighting machine Caesar advanced Roman rule. 
The politician in furthering his enterprise by organiza- 
tion has been quite as adept as the general, and the 
priesthood has at times distanced both. But the Ameri- 
can business executive, however, is the organizer of 
organizers, and his triumphs in this respect have only 
commenced. The isolated individual may be a dramatic 
figure, but the successful executive is he who best avails 
himself of other men's faculties. 

ORGANIZATION APPLIED 

I. The Organization Point of View. — In setting about 
to reap the above-mentioned advantages nothing is more 
fundamental than what may be termed the organization 
point of view. The essence of this is to see things as 
related. Upon the uninitiated all tasks press with equal 
persistence, but through increasing knowledge and expe- 
rience comes growth in power to discriminate, the ability 
to detect similarities and differences. Tasks no longer 
appear isolated but linked together like parts of a chain, 
related like grapes on a stem, subordinated like apex 
and foundation stone. 

This is the organization type of mind. It is common 



CHARTING THE ORGANIZATION 



79 



to those drilled in systematic thinking and long im- 
mersed in the materials of their particular vocation. 
Such a mind sees details, but only as parts of a whole ; 
reaches generalizations, but by the inductive route. 



Production 



U 



Ownership 



Management 

zr 



Clerical 



Selling 



Fig. 4. — An Organization Chart. 



2. The Systematic Plan. — If the activities of a fac- 
tory are analyzed, they are found to group themselves 
into certain general classes. These may be expressed 
graphically as per the above diagram (Fig. 4). The 
same activities, in the main, characterize a department 
store, an insurance company, or a university. Each of 
these might accordingly be charted; and somewhat 
similar diagrams could be made of a railroad or contrac- 
tor's organization, a city government or reformers' club. 

Whence are these forms derived? It has seemed 
to some that the diagrams themselves possess a magical 
efficacy, and these in consequence have been sought, 
bought, or borrowed. But this is mistaking form for 
substance. It is the organization type of mind analyz- 
ing the concrete problems encountered in a particular 



8o ORGANIZATION 

enterprise which produces the real functional chart. 
Discrimination is brought to bear upon the sum total 
of effort upon which the workings of the enterprise 
depends. Related lines of activity are detected, singled 
out, grouped — a department, perhaps, is formed. 
The systematic plan is gradually shaped up, and works, 
because founded on fact. 

The organization, it thus becomes evident, depends 
upon the purpose or design of which it is to be the in- 
strument. Merely a means to an end, never an end in 
itself, all its principal divisions and every detail of its 
structure are shaped to express the purpose of its origi- 
nator. The systematic plan is thus organization think- 
ing externalized. And, it may be added, the executive 
may render this plan more helpful if he reduces it to 
graphic form, explains and keeps it before those whose 
efforts it is to guide. 

3. Building an Organization. — Organization involves 
two main elements, work and men. The basic require- 
ment is that these be effectively combined. In order 
to realize this in practice, the work, as has been stated 
above, should be analyzed until it assumes a form worthy 
to be termed a systematic plan. The result of this 
t analysis is that general effort is differentiated into typical 
tasks. This is common in commercial business and in 
manufacturing. Division of labor has here been highly 
developed; scores of typical tasks, openings for men, 
exist in these organizations. 

The labor force, in turn, should be analyzed to find 
typical men. What is here desired in the beginning, of 
course, is numerous applicants from whom to choose. 
The successful politician, the plant whose labor reputa- 
tion is high, the pennant-winning club has a wealth of 
human material seeking alliance. Unto him that hath 
it shall be given. Moreover, the manager whose appli- 



MAN ANALYSIS 81 

cants secured in this way are of low grade need not 
rest with them but may himself seek men. 

A process of man analysis is next brought to bear upon 
these applicants in the hope of discovering the desired 
type men. In a rough way such analysis probably began 
with the cave men. No one is without some ability to 
read men, a sort of intuitive process. This faculty in 
some has been developed to a high degree of sensitive- 
ness. It is said of Lincoln, for instance, that in select- 
ing incumbents for public trust he maneuvered men as 
pieces on a chessboard, dispassionately considering only 
which available piece would fit best in the square which 
he had to fill. As a rule, through long experience and 
observation, the study of successful employees and mis- 
fits, managers evolve standards and become able readily 
to pick men who satisfy these tests. 

This is the familiar rule-of-thumb procedure. It may 
seem that its defects condemn it ; but practically it works, 
and likely will be the chief reliance of managers for 
generations to come. Nevertheless, systematization 
means removing methods from " under the hatband," 
perfecting them, and getting them down upon paper. 
The various requirements for the position are noted, 
then graded in their order of importance. The result 
is what may be termed a score card. Such score cards 
the agricultural colleges have worked out satisfactorily 
for the judging of horses, cattle, grain, etc., and there 
is no good reason why in industry similar cards will not 
come into use. The principle is that standards be set, 
each separate qualification necessary for the position 
being ranked so many points on the basis of one hun- 
dred, and individuals thereupon scored high or low as 
they approach the ideal shown by the card. Merely the 
attempt to prepare such a score card will remove much 
of the indefiniteness of man selection. 



82 ORGANIZATION 

To secure the increased certainty always desirable 
and often necessary as a basis for decision, the experi- 
mental psychologist is needed. His tests are more 
accurate and searching, and even certain of the more 
elusive psychological factors he plots on paper. His 
science, however, in the main is yet to be developed, and 
even then it is likely that important limitations will 
still attend its use. 1 Nevertheless an auspicious begin- 
ning is under way which, even though it do no more 
than indicate possibilities, has already made organiza- 
tion building more systematic. 

An exact correspondence between type task and type 
man, though the attempt is guided by all knowledge 
available, is difficult if not impossible to secure. For- 
tunately, as a practical working policy, such corre- 
spondence is unnecessary ; mutual adaptation is possi- 
ble. The task modified to suit the man is one solution. 
To one person, especially in a small organization where 
the number of tasks considerably exceeds the num- 
ber of men, may be assigned the combination of 
tasks which best fits him. Or, instead of aiming at an 
ideal organization scheme, which, on account of the 
non-fitting men upon whose efforts the plan depends, 
would in practice be poorly executed, a much less ideal 
systematization of tasks by its better adaptation to the 
men involved may often yield superior results. What 
is desired is an effective fit, and this may often be 
reached through a modification of plan. 

Modifying men to suit plan is an equally good, often 
a better, solution. Human nature is not static, like 
clay bricks shaped once for all, but possesses plasticity 
which permits a certain amount of reshaping. How- 
ever, men vary considerably in this power of adapta- 
tion. Good heredity, native adaptability, and youth 

1 Cf. Munsterberg, Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, 126-127. 



LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY 83 

increase adjustment. Once selected, they are further 
molded into the desired ways, numerous plans for 
accomplishing which are discussed on later pages. 

When task and men are well fitted together — and kept 
so — the organization is effective. Work is easy, men 
are happy; harmony prevails, cooperation is assured, 
there is loyalty and efficiency. And these are results flow- 
ing directly from analytical power, the ability to detect 
elements in task and man; and constructive instinct, 
the creation of new and effective combinations. 

4. Supplementing Men by Machines. — When work 
has been analyzed and planned in a systematic way, part 
of it is reduced to mere routine. Here is the opening for 
a machine. The control of the routine process is removed 
from human volition and becomes relatively fixed in a 
mechanism. The mind of the inventor thereupon really 
dominates these processes, the workmen becoming at- 
tendants. A high grade of thinking in one man thus per- 
mits the utilization of low-grade thinking in many men. 

Processes of greater and greater complexity are 
steadily being incorporated into mechanisms; scarcely 
a day passes would we not marvel at some new tri- 
umph of inventive genius were these not so common. 
The result is that machines have a continually widening 
scope, provided only that the work be reduced to routine. 
That our manufacturers are abundantly able to do this 
is proved by observation of their plants and the fact 
that the muscle power of every wage earner on an 
average is supplemented by three horse power. 1 The 
equipment being demonstrated at business shows and 
found used by progressive concerns indicates a similar 
movement among commercial organizations. 2 

1 Abstract, Thirteenth Census, 471. 

2 In present-day office practice the following devices are employed : 
billing machines, adding machines, bookkeeping machines, calculators, 



X 



84 ORGANIZATION 

After the typical tasks have once been outlined, 
consequently, the search for machines should parallel 
that for men; human effort thus being supplemented 
by mechanical contrivances and effective organization 
becoming triune in nature — task, man, and machine. 

Organization might then claim to be complete. Yet 
this is not so until the executive has applied it to himself 
and is personally a sharer in its advantages and require- 
ments. To a discussion of this point we now turn. 

EXERCISES 

i. Discuss: " Executive ability is the art of earning one's 
living by the sweat of another man's brow." 

2. Illustrate by original graphic chart the plan of some organ- 
ization. 

3. Consult with an employment manager concerning his 
method of selecting men. 

4. Is it true that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing 
well? 

5. Does immigration retard the development of labor-saving 
machinery or does the development of labor-saving machinery 
stimulate immigration? 

6. Discuss the use of the following : dictaphone, comptometer, 
mimeograph, card index, vertical letter file, loose-leaf books. 

7. Why is the corporate form of organization so largely super- 
seding the individual proprietorship and partnership? 

8. Are business concerns more or less closely systematized 
now than formerly? Why? 

READINGS 

Munsterberg, Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, Part I. 
Blackford, The Man, The Job, The Boss. 

duplicators, addressing machines, typewriters, manibilling machines, 
filing devices, envelope sealers, stamp afrixers, check protectors, folding 
machines, time clocks. And this list is by no means exhaustive. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Systematic Personal Effort 

"It is this thinking man — the Count Moltke, with his head 
over some papers — who sees that the proper motions are applied 
to matter in the activities of production, distribution, and adminis- 
tration." — Walter Bagehot. 

A mass of material pours in upon every executive. 
Letters by the hundreds are dumped into the office, 
the mere opening of which would often consume his 
working hours. Streams of callers besiege him ; receiv- 
ing each would leave the reception room still crowded 
at nightfall. Telephone messages, telegrams, messen- 
gers, memoranda from subordinates, press new problems 
upon him ; " unfinished business " haunts the office 
and, like Banquo's ghost, will not down. Under such 
a burden many a manager is being crushed. His life 
is one long losing fight. In spite of strenuous activity, 
there has remained no time for those larger problems 
upon which, after all, successful guidance depends. * 

And this, too, even though the executive in question 
is an organization head and the incoming material is 
solely of an administrative nature. Obviously, to take 
a vacation in the mountains leaving things to go as they 
will, or to cut down the volume of business, are neither 
to be seriously considered as solutions. The real avenue 
of escape lies in systematizing one's own personal effort. 
Upon what measures does this depend? 

J. A Classification of Material. — Analysis brought to 
bear upon this material reveals certain types or classes ; 

r 85 



86 SYSTEMATIC PERSONAL EFFORT 

such, for instance, as correspondence, callers, telephone 
calls, telegraph messengers, unfinished business, new 
business. The plan is merely to sort the various tasks 
into a few main categories, something which in most 
cases can readily be done since the classes are general 
and usually obvious. 

2. A Subordination of Material. — The material thus 
classified should not be attacked as a mere mass. It is 
to be arranged in pyramid form so the executive may strike 
at the apex. This plan applied to correspondence, for 
example, would work out somewhat as follows : The 
incoming mail is sorted by an assistant. Part of it is of 
routine nature and need not come to the executive's 
attention at all. Certain letters may contain certain 
sections worthy of the chief's perusal. Such sections 
may be underscored or margin checked. Still other 
letters may be condensed for his rapid reading. Under 
some such plans as these the executive handles only 
concentrated correspondence. Every effort in reading 
hits the apex. 

The outgoing mail is handled from a similar point of 
view. Part of the replies are completely standardized 
and subordinates manage these without executive com- 
ment. Another part may be composed of standardized 
paragraphs, to the typists being given numbers referring 
to the particular paragraphs desired in each letter. Still 
other letters are answered by such general statements or 
notations on the letters as " Refuse request," " Grant 
usual rate," " Ask W. to arrange this," the subordinates 
through long familiarity with the routine being able in 
this way to compose the entire letter. The small pro- 
portion of letters not disposed of by the foregoing means 
are to be dictated in their entirety. Thus there are 
numerous plans through which the executive effort ex- 
pended upon letters yields more and better returns. 



THE EFFICIENCY DESK 87 

According to this general plan of subordinating 
material, the executive does not see every caller, but 
certain callers ; does not talk with every one who calls 
up on the telephone, but with a selected few ; does 
not seek here and there for what he needs, but has it 
brought ; does not pile his desk with undigested masses 
of figures, but studies boiled-down reports. Subordinates 
quarry at the base of the pyramid; he directs their 
efforts from the apex. 

5. Mechanical Aids. — System exists in the man ; it 
shows itself in his work. Does he get much done, does he 
do it well, does he get it done on time? Whoever thus 
qualifies is a systematic worker. It would follow that sys- 
tem in reality does not consist of card indexes, blanks and 
charts, red tape. Nevertheless, these things have their le- 
gitimate place, and, regarded in their true light as means 
to an end, assume an importance to the systematic man. 

A mechanical aid of great value, yet in whose drawers 
and pigeonholes lurk system's strongest foes, is the 
office desk. A flat- topped desk is the best type, and its 
deck should be kept cleared for action. Unfinished work, 
instead of being scattered here and there through a half- 
dozen pigeonholes, should be awaiting one in the hold- 
over file. Tasks for any reason not completed should 
be filed ahead. The new tasks should be sorted into the 
day's work folder. Each task as it is taken up should 
receive definite treatment. This may call for a series 
of little boxes or compartments, properly labeled, into 
which the outgoing material is sorted; and some form 
of filing system for that material which is to be retained. 
Of the various desk devices these are some of the most 
helpful. But whatever aids are used, the work should 
proceed in a rapid, orderly sequence. 

One disturbing factor is the presence of unwelcome 
callers. Among the methods for limiting loss of time 



88 SYSTEMATIC PERSONAL EFFORT 

from this source are the " buffer," the private secretary, 
or switchboard operator who discriminates among 
callers ; the forestalling of trouble by granting a definite 
amount of time in advance; making the call fruitful 
by seeking information instead of giving it; rising as 
a sign the interview is terminated; or commencing 
work or looking at the clock as a hint to leave. But 
certain mechanical devices also serve well the same pur- 
pose. A buzzer is concealed where it may be con- 
veniently pressed ; the secretary rings a return buzzer 
whose sound warns the caller, or she appears in person 
to call the chief. Or by means of an electric writing 
attachment the executive may learn from the secretary 
who is waiting outside, and terminate the call ac- 
cordingly. By some such means as these, the executive, 
without offense, may control his caller's stay. 

Another disturbing element is a faulty memory. 
Managers must encompass an enormous mass of data 
— and the overloaded memory is almost certain to break 
down. Keep leading plans and principles in mind, turn 
details over to mechanical aids, is a good working rule. 
There is the ordinary notebook, the loose-leaf notebook, 
unbound leaves to be carried in a leather pocket case, 
in each instance the sheets being either plain or ruled 
to such special forms as are most serviceable. There is 
also the desk calendar pad, its sheets prepared in daily, 
weekly, or monthly forms with blank space for jottings. 
Another device is the hold-over file. Under proper 
label in this file is to be found the information when 
wanted. But perhaps the best device of all is a small 
card index to be kept on the desk and worked in connec- 
tion with loose sheets of paper of the same size carried 
in the pocket. Notations can be conveniently made 
upon these cards at any time; each sheet may then 
be filed in the card index under the proper date. 



WORKING ON SCHEDULE 89 

" Don't take your business cares to bed with you," 
becomes in this way a maxim to be realized in practice. 
When the burden of detail has been rolled upon devices 
which never tire nor forget, the brain may rest in the 
faith that all is well. 

4. The Bay's Work Planned. — The systematic worker 
wastes no time in getting under way. Upon arrival 
in the morning he reaches for the card index file; 
under the proper date is its " Things for To-day." In 
the similar pocket of the hold-over file reposes the 
" Unfinished Business " now ready for attention. On 
the calendar pad is the list of appointments. Upon a 
certain designated place at his desk is soon to be placed 
the " New Business," properly boiled down by subordi- 
nates. Here are the materials to be builded into the 
day's work plan. 

This material first is to be classified. Although each 
business may make necessary slight variations, all 
executives will be able to make some general classifica- 
tion. For instance, some material may be disposed of by 
dictation ; it can be slipped into the " Ready to Dictate " 
section of the day's work folder. Certain tasks must 
not be delayed ; these should be sorted into the " Im- 
mediate Action " section. Other tasks, it is commonly 
found, require consultation with a co-worker; such 
material is to be slipped into a section labeled with his 
name. Some tasks cannot at present be solved, must 
be delayed until the required quotations, perhaps, are 
received; these should be set forward in the hold-over 
file. The day's work thus assumes a plan. A schedule 
can now be prepared. In black and white the mechan- 
ical aids give their commands — and these are to be 
obeyed. There must be no turning over to sleep another 
half hour when the business alarm clock rings out its 
orders. 



90 SYSTEMATIC PERSONAL EFFORT 

5. Sharing Burdens. — The foregoing plans rest upon 
the assumption that the executive is not to do every- 
thing himself. He could — at least he often feels he 
could — do these things better than anybody else, and 
for this reason managers of the over-particular sort 
frequently grind themselves out in routine. " The 
proverbial reluctance to allow those to enter the water 
whom we would have swim," observes John Wanamaker, 
" has given short measure to many a success." 

Napoleon, in his failure to relieve himself of details 
by building up an adequate staff, is an illustrious in- 
stance of this truth. During his early years he made 
up for this by remarkable activity, but by the time of 
the last German campaign the intellect, once sweeping 
and vigorous enough to compass all details, had begun 
to falter. Napoleon's defeat at Leipsic was mainly due 
to his neglect of details which he here seems to have left 
largely to subordinates. Hitherto he had saved them 
practically all the thinking, and now in the emergency 
they possessed no directive capacity, but looked to him to 
arrange everything. Such business Napoleons are legion, 
and Leipsics in consequence are being lost every day. 

Working strenuously at a desk overloaded with de- 
tails may give one the feeling that things are moving 
swiftly ; however, the real test of an executive is not so 
much what he does as what he gets done. " Let the 
other fellow do the work," says Alexander J. Cassatt of 
the Pennsylvania ; " I've been trying the experiment 
of confining myself to learning how a thing ought to be 
done — and then seeing that somebody else does it that 
way." 1 

Another railroad executive, Charles E. Perkins, for 
many years president of the Burlington, summarized his 
working principles as follows : " Never do, or undertake 
1 System, November, 1906, 449. 



SHARING RESPONSIBILITIES 91 

to do, yourself what can be done sufficiently well by a 
subordinate. There are things enough which cannot be 
done sufficiently well by subordinates to occupy your 
time and mind. 

" Trust those under you, and let each one work at his 
problems, for the most part,, himself; otherwise your 
subordinates will not learn to depend upon themselves, 
but upon you. 

" Keep as much as possible out of petty everyday 
details. Let stated reports be made to your adjutants, if 
you choose, but do not take it upon yourself to see them 
all. So long as the machine works smoothly you 
should be a looker-on, except as to those particular parts 
of it which, because others cannot do them well 
enough, you yourself may undertake to attend to." 1 

Burdens should be shared — to that all no doubt 
will agree — but how ? Too minute attention to de- 
tails buries the executive beneath his organization; 
ignoring all details, he becomes an alien outside it. The 
proper balance is struck by making one's personal effort 
systematic. Organization activities are graded and 
reduced to pyramid form ; the executive works at the 
apex. The pyramid itself, however, is no monument, 
but a throbbing organism with communication fibers 
binding it to the organization head. And the execu- 
tive now and then quits his lofty post to move among 
the substations, seeing for himself how truly their ac- 
tivities are being transmitted to him and sensing afresh 
the significance of their work. 

To the executive whose powers are organized great 
accomplishment becomes possible; task after task is 
taken up and dispatched at a clip. Yet there is no 
undue haste. Men forced to hurry have badly disposed 
of their time; the systematic man can afford leisure. 
1 Morris, Railroad Administration, 95. 



92 SYSTEMATIC PERSONAL EFFORT 

Originality and initiative are not frittered away by 
detail but conserved through organized effort. With 
reserve power and time at his command the executive 
rises to his true position as shaper of policies and di- 
rector of men. 

Part I may now be concluded. It has considered, in 
turn : energy, its significance and development ; direc- 
tion, the application of power for specific ends; and 
organization, the securing of larger results through 
systematic effort, both among subordinates and with 
oneself. Yet the possession of these three qualities 
is only one phase in the control of men. Individuality 
seeks to realize itself; the organization builded for 
this purpose must be motivated, and to this problem 
is devoted Part II. 

EXERCISES 

i. Which comes more natural to men, doing things or having 
them done? Which is the true executive policy? 

2. Of what importance to the executive is the private secre- 
tary? Why have these secretaries frequently advanced to ad- 
ministrative positions? 

3. How improve the memory? What plans enable you to 
prevent overloading the memory? 

4. Draw up a day's work schedule. 

5. Why is household work usually very inefficient? Describe 
the arrangement of an efficiency kitchen. 

6. Describe in detail how a certain executive's office might 
be arranged for greatest efficiency. 

READINGS 

James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology, Ch. XII. 

How to Systematize the Day's Work. (The A. W. Shaw Co.) 



PART II: MOTIVATING THE 
GROUP 



CHAPTER IX 

Stimulating and Controlling Men 

"No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest, 
Till half mankind were like himself possessed." 

— Cowper. 

"Executive ability consists in getting the right men in the right 
places and keeping them willingly at the top notch." 

— Herbert G. Stockwell. 

In order to realize his individuality, the executive 
must motivate his group ; that is, must stimulate and 
control other men to do what he would have them do. 
" When the mayor crosses the threshold with quick 
step, every clerk bends more eagerly to his task," it was 
recently said of a New York magistrate. " The moment 
he appeared, everything was in motion," was the way 
his biographer characterized Lord Nelson. William 
the Silent was " one of those people who bring hustle 
and activity with them wherever they are." Henry IV 
of France dispatched those spirited notes which " seem 
written when his foot was already in the stirrup. They 
breathe the fresh vigor of the morning and recall in their 
stirring brevity the note of horn or trumpet rousing 
huntsman or soldiers." 1 Chinese Gordon so impressed 

1 One of these reads as follows : " Put wings to your best horse. I 
have told Montespan to break the wind of his. Why? That will I 
tell you at Nerac. Hasten, speed, fly. This is the command of your 
master and the prayer of your friend." 

95 



96 STIMULATING AND CONTROLLING MEN 

the whole population that " The Pasha is coming " was 
news that inspired alertness in every functionary. 
Such men — and there are many like them — commu- 
nicate a thrill at every contact. 

Executives vary considerably, however, in this re- 
spect. In organizations seemingly well constructed one 
often observes the lack of " snap," " vim," " push " ; 
apathy reigns, systematic " soldiering " cuts away 
profits; the whole force, it is declared, is a lazy lot. 
Wholesale discharge somehow fails to remedy matters. 
The new force soon settles into the snail's pace main- 
tained by the old ; the disease has not been eradicated. 
It is this same disease whose miasma pervades railroad 
shops, department stores, public schools, counting houses. 
Its blight swells the bankruptcy courts and dwarfs the 
nation's surplus. And no one appreciates this fact 
more keenly than the average executive. His subordi- 
nates exercise only a part of their powers, and he 
knows it. 

Yet the energy is there all the while, a mine of wealth 
for the prospector, reservoirs of power ready to be 
tapped. The executive need not fail. 

THE SOURCE OF EFFORT 

Directed effort, commonly termed work, is at bottom 
due to neural matter stimulating muscular tissue. The 
influence of the leader at most is only secondary ; pri- 
marily, subordinates act because their brain cells so 
command. Now the basic elements of mind are the 
instincts. Vague and general and, in our present state 
of knowledge, impossible to classify accurately, these 
instincts and the primary tendencies growing out of 
them furnish the springs of all human activity. 

The English psychologist first to discuss the instincts 



ANALYSIS OF MIND 97 

with systematic emphasis, William McDougall, has drawn 
up the following classification : l 

Flight Acquisition 

Repulsion Construction 

Curiosity Reproduction 

Pugnacity Parental instinct 

Self-assertion and self-abasement Gregarious instinct 

He also presents some general or non-specific innate 
tendencies, such as sympathy, suggestion, imitation, 
emulation. From the viewpoint of instincts, then, why 
do men act? Because they fear, are disgusted, or cu- 
rious or angry ; because they desire to assert themselves 
or abase themselves ; because they wish to acquire or 
construct, to gratify the parental instinct or enjoy the 
company of their fellows; in short, to satisfy their 
innate or instinctive tendencies. 

A second element, however, enters in to modify the 
play of mere instinctive activity, and this is feeling. 
Viewed in the light of evolution, certain types of reac- 
tion have proved advantageous to the species; these 
in general are pleasurable. Certain others have proved 
detrimental ; these on the whole cause pain. Pleasure 
and pain, consequently, entering in as powerful adjuncts 
to the instincts, have their part in shaping activity. 

A third element must also be considered, the intellect. 
In the complex life of civilization, success does not depend 
merely upon instinctive and emotional promptings; at 
every turn is seen the influence of consciously wrought- 
out adaptations. The intellect becomes the supreme 
factor in adjustment to environment. Men toil because 
they judge the results of labor preferable to idleness; 
they submit to continued effort and enforce self-discipline 
because it appeals to them as intelligent procedure. 

1 Social Psychology, See especially Ch. III. 



o8 STIMULATING AND CONTROLLING MEN 

From the above brief analysis of the mind may be 
drawn two conclusions of extreme importance. However 
commonplace they may seem, it is from the neglect of 
these principles that stagnation often rules the camp; 
by their recognition and application the organization 
moves at double-quick. 

i. The True Springs of Effort are found in the Minds 
of Followers. — Activity on the part of the executive is 
only a means to an end ; the real test is the effect pro- 
duced in subordinates. The orator who gesticulates 
most violently often has a bored audience, the foreman 
does not abolish " soldiering " merely by dashing about 
the shop. We may be entertained by acrobatic stunts, 
but not stimulated. 

Although forty-pound blows on the top of a piano 
produce no music, two-ounce strokes on the keyboard 
may fill a whole room with melody. The lighter strokes 
have been properly placed. This illustration from the 
piano is confirmed in a most emphatic way by experi- 
ments upon living organisms. Galvanic power applied 
to the nerve in a frog's leg releases energy 70,000 times 
greater than the original stimulation. 1 Organisms, 
therefore, should be likened to a great pile of dry-goods 
boxes, to sticks of dynamite; proper stimulation is the 
match, the percussion cap — relatively insignificant in 
itself but sufficient to cause the bonfire, the tremendous 
explosion. 

With human beings this is especially true. A word 
gently spoken has set a whole army in motion. A simple 
gesture may evoke intensest enthusiasm. One unit of 
energy properly applied multiplies itself a million fold. 
But this energy to be effective is not pounded upon men's 
rough exteriors, but releases the power latent within. 

1 James, Will to Believe, 224-225. Cf. his Memories and Studies, 
138-139. 



THE RELEASE OF ENERGY 99 

In this fact is to be found the right point of view. A 
leader should not work upon the exterior, pounding and 
forcing, but from the interior, stimulating and releas- 
ing. It is his task to pull triggers in the minds of fol- 
lowers. 

Activity is thus readily initiated. Even lower organ- 
isms are not passive to the environment, but essentially 
active. Inertness by no means characterizes mankind. 
Shaped as it has been by a struggle for existence cen- 
turies old, human nature is essentially dynamic. 1 Man 
has a full complement of instincts which press for dis- 
charge; a range of emotional promptings unrivaled in 
the animal kingdom; and intellectual conceptions of 
the most compelling sort. Physiologically and psycho- 
logically, he is builded for action. 

Sociologically, as well, the same is true. Even among 
primitives the motto is often shaped to spur the laggard. 
" Be not idle, but labor diligently, that you may not 
become slaves," say the Karens of Burma. " Persever- 
ance always triumphs," is a saying of the Basutos. In 
the sowing of corn, again and again Zoroaster found 
true merit. The words of St. Paul are equally clear and 
explicit, " If any will not work, neither let him eat." 
This belief that activity is commendable is especially 
deep-grained in the Americans. A picked lot, energetic 
migrants from many lands, they never weary of inculcat- 
ing maxims of industry, no stories being more highly 
prized than those in which success is won through stern 

1 "All the inducements of early society tend to foster immediate 
action; all its penalties fall on the man who pauses; the traditional 
wisdom of those times was never weary of inculcating that 'delays are 
dangerous,' and that the sluggish man — the man 'who roasteth not 
that which he took in hunting' — will not prosper on the earth, and in- 
deed will very soon perish out of it. And in consequence an inability 
to stay quiet, an irritable desire to act directly, is one of the most con- 
spicuous failings of mankind." Bagehot, Physics and Politics, 186. 



ioo STIMULATING AND CONTROLLING MEN 

endeavor. It is felt that everybody should be doing 
something useful, that recreation is justifiable only 
because it prepares people for more work. By this 
social tradition, consequently, is shaped in the minds 
of followers an attitude valuable to managers, viz. a 
more ready willingness to respond to stimulation by 
expending effort. The source of energy has been well 
prepared. 

2. There are not merely One hut Several Means of 
Releasing Energy. — A man is willing to expend effort, 
as was pointed out above, because prompted to do so by 
any of the numerous instincts, the different emotions, 
or the various phases of intellect. This is the second 
conclusion of importance. The mind is complex and 
can be reached in many ways. 

Yet this fact is often neglected. Employers of labor, 
for instance, usually proceed upon the assumption that 
the mind has only one motive force; they rest their 
case upon the pay check. This view is narrow. De- 
sire for gain is only one of many motives, a fact which is 
demonstrated again and again by employers who through 
wider appeal secure greater effort for less money cost. 

Men's minds may be compared to a log jam in the 
spring freshet. There is surging and seething, much 
energy under restraint. The chief logger of the lumber 
drive chooses in advance neither bank nor midstream 
location for attack ; but when the jam is on, he seeks out 
the key log. If this one log does not release the jam, he 
attacks those next in importance until the whole mass 
swings off down the stream. The logs are ranked ac- 
cording to their releasing power. The leader of men 
should so rank the means at his command. 

When the executive has recognized that the true source 
of organized energy is in the minds of subordinates, and 
like an artist employs the means which best release it, 



MEN'S SOCIALIZED NATURE 101 

a certain effort on his part will develop maximum effort 
in them. And this, so far as stimulation is concerned, 
is the ideal of leadership. 

CONTROL 

Stimulation is only one phase of the matter. 1 It is 
not energy per se which suffices, but energy insuring 
results. Aimless efforts may in fact be worse than none, 
because destructive. In order that accomplishment 
may be made certain, control must intervene. The 
problem is how this may be secured. Granting that full 
stimulation may be had, how prevent discordant action ? 
Why do not men under urging inevitably take to the 
woods ? 

Fundamentally, this depends upon their social nature, 
a quality in itself due to the fact that throughout the age- 
long struggle for existence collective effort has meant 
survival. As bees live in swarms, ants in colonies, 
wolves in packs, and elephants in herds, so have men from 
their very earliest origins united their efforts in common 
cause. 2 Every advance in civilization since the cave 

1 Fundamentally, control is a phase of stimulation, since, as Howell 
points out, the impulse conveyed to tissue or cell by nerve fiber may 
stimulate activity, in which case the effect is exciting, or, if already 
active, the tissue or cell may be reduced to a condition of rest or lessened 
activity, the effect then being inhibitory. Cf . Text-book of Physiology, 
75. Similarly Verworn defines stimulus as "every alteration in the 
external vital conditions." Cf. Irritability, 37. However, in this dis- 
cussion the popular usage of the terms is retained. 

2 So important does Darwin consider this social nature that he con- 
cludes "it might have been an immense advantage to man to have 
sprung from some comparatively weak creature" because "an animal 
possessing great size, strength, and ferocity, and which, like the gorilla, 
could defend itself from all enemies, would not perhaps have become 
social; and this would most effectually have checked the acquirement 
of the higher mental qualities, such as sympathy and love of his fellows." 
Descent of Man, 64. Cf. also Kropotkin, Mutual Aid. 



102 STIMULATING AND CONTROLLING MEN 

men has increased, not decreased, their interdependence. 
Our contemporaries live only through mutual aid. One 
result is very clear, that this evolution has developed 
a socialized human nature. Untempered egoism is a 
myth. It never could have characterized the intergroup 
relations of men since that stock defective in socia- 
bility would have been long since weeded out. The 
child is thus born to be a member of society. Socia- 
bility is implanted within him from birth and he grows 
only by building a social self. 

It follows that a person wishes his social self to stand 
well in the eyes of his fellows. This is a conspicuous trait 
among savages as among civilized people, self-regarding 
pride in fact being universal. We all necessarily care 
what others think of us. To secure this favorable opin- 
ion, therefore, one makes himself an obliging member of 
the group, subordinating himself for the sake of collec- 
tive harmony. 

This subordination may be racial, as instanced by 
the negro tucking himself into lowly positions in the 
South or the Australian native's menial attitude in the 
presence of Englishmen. Or it may be subordination 
to class, admirably set forth in an old English tale written 
about 1875, — " The peasantry and little people in 
country places like to feel the gentry far above them. 
They do not care to be caught up into the empyrean of 
an equal humanity, but enjoy the poetry of their self- 
abasement in the belief that their superiors are indeed 
their betters." Or it may be subordination to the 
democratic multitude. In the small and rude commu- 
nities of the former, each man depends primarily upon 
himself and even in the common councils feels his per- 
sonal independence and significance. In a far-flung 
democracy, however, one's own being shrinks and seems 
lost in the great human hive. Overwhelmed with the 



LOYALTY 103 

sense of its insignificance, individuality wilts and ere- 
long succumbs to this " fatalism of the multitude." x 
Or again it may be subordination to parents, common 
enough to us all; or to masterful persons or ideals, as 
will be considered in detail later on and need not here 
concern us. What should be emphasized is simply 
this : subordination is extremely common and the exec- 
utive deals with men long habituated to it. 

Subordination, in turn, includes much more than 
mere passivity or negative self-feeling. It implies 
willingness to serve, a willingness which easily becomes 
devotion, a trait inbred in human nature and so empha- 
sized by home, school, church, and occupation that 
only the exceptional man knows not loyalty. There 
is something savoring of the sublime in the little life 
stories continually filtering in from camp and factory 
and office; here a watchman withstanding plunderers, 
there a captain bravely going down with his ship, again 
an aged employee rounding out a half century of serv- 
ice with the same firm, all indicating devotion un- 
shaken to this monitor within the breast. Loyalty is 
a real force among men. 

In the socialization of human nature, subordination, 
and the development of loyalty, control is made possible. 
Its application, we may note further, is conditioned by 
two additional elements : 

(1) Homogeneity insures Like Response to Stimula- 
tion. — A flock of wild geese when frightened rise 
simultaneously from the water. The appearance of the 
cowboy over the ridge is followed by common action 
throughout the cattle herd. The comedian's joke 
brings a general laugh. A cry at the left and every head 
turns that way. In fact, if it were not so, if instead 

1 Bryce, The American Commonwealth, II, lxxxiv. 



104 STIMULATING AND CONTROLLING MEN 

each member reacted differently to the same stimula- 
tion, collective action would be impossible and society 
could not be. 

Because of this like response, however, leaders through 
stimulation are able to secure concurrent action. Uni- 
fied effort is thus possible ; subordinates may be con- 
solidated upon a single policy. An executive, in his 
attempt to release the energy latent in followers, can 
proceed upon the assumption that team work will 
follow. 

(2) As with Stimulation so with Control, its Source is 
within the Minds of Followers and there are Several 
Means of securing It. — To those whose idea of stimu- 
lation is bound up with whip or goad, control will also 
appear as hand clutch or prison. But many a man while 
held is stubbornly striking back ; and prison walls often 
house rebellious spirits. In those cases where stocks 
and bars do control, it is still not by virtue of these 
things primarily. At most they are secondary. It is 
the controlled spirit which yields up the desired type 
of action. 

Control in its essence, therefore, is not mechanical, 
does not consist in things. It is psychological, consists 
in the shaping influence which one mind exerts over 
another. A considerable array of paraphernalia, it is 
true, may assist in affecting this result, but such things 
are mere externals and means to an end. Control is a 
matter of inhibition and direction, and these are products 
of each individual consciousness. 

Since stimulation and control are thus matters of 
the mental life, the executive must needs possess knowl- 
edge of human nature and skill in appealing to it. Prick- 
ing, caressing, urging, restraining, he would move 
through the innermost hearts of men, their master. 
But what of his technique, how does he do it? The 



EXERCISES AND READINGS 105 

following ten chapters will attempt to give detailed 
answers to this question. Commencing with the most 
elusive of the means through which one individual 
exercises ascendency over others and gradually working 
toward the more matter-of-fact, these chapters will 
survey the various methods by which the group is 
motivated. 

EXERCISES 

1. Why is handling men necessarily a complex problem? 
Show that heterogeneity of organization makes it increasingly so. 

2. Select an advertisement which appeals to an instinct. An 
emotion. The intellect. 

3. What follows when the promptings of the various instincts 
conflict ? 

4. Show that "no man liveth unto himself alone" is justified 
by scientific analysis. 

5. Illustrate by concrete example: collective struggle for 
existence, gregarious instinct, concurrent action, loyalty. 

READINGS 

Ross, Foundations of Sociology, Ch. VIII, or Ward, Pure Sociol- 
ogy, Ch. XII. 

Ellwood, Sociology in its Psychological Aspects, Ch. XII, or 
Parmlee, Human Behavior, Ch. XX. 



CHAPTER X 

Personality 

Lear. "Dost thou know me, fellow?" 

Kent. "No, sir; but you have that in your countenance 
which I would fain call master." 

In an elusive yet effectual way, some men have exer- 
cised power through presence alone. " The mere look 
of the man and the sound of his voice made all who 
saw and heard him feel that Webster must be the em- 
bodiment of wisdom, dignity, and strength, divinely 
eloquent, even if he sat in dreamy silence or uttered 
nothing but heavy commonplaces." l 

Garibaldi " enjoyed the worship and cast the spell 
of a legendary hero." Mirabeau " is possessed of a 
secret charm that opens him the hearts of almost all 
people." Cortes spoke, and the assembly, which had 
gathered in a spirit of mutiny, broke up with cheers and 
shouts of, " To Mexico ! To Mexico ! " 

To overcome the unanimous opposition he met with, 
De Lesseps " had only to show himself. He would 
speak briefly, and in face of the charm he exerted his 
opponents became his friends. The English in partic- 
ular strenuously opposed his scheme; he had only to 
put in an appearance in England to rally all suffrages. 
In later years, when he passed Southampton, the bells 
were rung on his passage." 2 

1 Lodge, Daniel Webster, 192-193. 

2 Lc Bon, The Crowd, 157-158. 

106 



CONTROL BY PERSONALITY 107 

Said Vandamme of Napoleon : " That devil of a man 
exercises a fascination on me that I cannot explain even 
to myself, and in such degree, that, though I fear neither 
God nor devil, when I am in his presence I am ready to 
tremble like a child, and he could make me go through 
the eye of a needle to throw myself into the fire." 1 

Such is the compelling personality. Apparently 
ignoring all the usual means of control, he yet casts a 
spell over men and binds them to his will. 

SOURCES OF PERSONALITY 

Upon what depends such exceptional power? This 
question, it is evident, would probe the very depths of 
human nature, would lay bare the " riddle " of person- 
ality upon which so many occult societies and seers still 
flourish — and our natures have hidden recesses never 
yet explored. Nevertheless, an explanation may be 
attempted. The results, however incomplete, will have 
a value. 

The power of personality so mystifies the beholder 
that he yields though unable to tell why. This indi- 
cates the power is not due to rational appeal. Its ex- 
planation must be sought in the subconscious, in expe- 
riences which hark back to racial origins. It is in the 
instincts and emotions that this racial experience 
slumbers, embedded there like fossils of a by-gone age. 
Through a personal presence the subconscious product 
is stimulated. The effect is uncanny, perhaps, because 
the subject does not realize himself possessed of the 
qualities through the stimulation of which it is pro- 
duced. 

These qualities, of course, are complex because the 
life history of man has been so. To set them forth in 
1 Le Bon, The Crowd, 152-153. 



108 PERSONALITY 

detail would require consideration of every influence 
impinging upon human beings from Pliocene age to 
date. Nevertheless, the ground patterns of human 
nature have been shaped by certain major interests, 
these centering in food, safety, shelter, and sex satis- 
faction. This, for one thing, has involved fighting long 
continued ; not general warfare, it is true, since this is 
possible only among relatively well-developed states, 
but petty raids. Men have long lived in the shadow of 
combat, either actual or threatened. They have also 
lived in fear of the unseen. The unexpected and the 
unexplainable were never far removed, with death 
hovering at the margin. In addition, these men have 
lived as a social unit. Success depended in large meas- 
ure upon keeping the common bonds intact. Social 
virtues were deeply impressed upon each member. 

In the collective struggle for existence, therefore, 
during an intense experience which began some two hun- 
dred and forty thousand years ago and yet continues, 
was developed an ideal, more or less vague no doubt 
but still an ideal, of what sort of man the leader should 
be. Types of instinctive and emotional reaction were 
fixed in human nature as to what should be his recep- 
tion once did he appear. Failure in either of these 
directions would have meant group extinction ; no 
community which consistently fled before a puny war- 
rior or scorned its wisest men could possibly continue 
to exist. The members, consequently, learned to react 
promptly and strongly to the properly qualified man. 
What were his primary qualifications? 

i. Physical Prowess. — In critical situations again 
and again the value of physique has been pressed home 
upon consciousness. Consider the vivid impression 
made upon each follower when his chief, as is often 
true in savage society, favorably terminates a war 



IMPRESSIVE PHYSIQUE 109 

through the strength of his arm, or, to cite an example 
of more recency, when his general wields the battle ax 
as did Bruce before Bannockburn ! l 

Justice as well hinged upon personal prowess. If 
custom did not settle a difference, a fight would, and 
might made right. And favor with the opposite sex, 
moreover, was no matter of tea table and tango, but of 
hard muscle and sure eye. " The women," said an 
Igorrote chief, " won't marry our men if they do not 
take heads." 

In respect to this one element, the race has been sub- 
jected to a series of experiences in which, other things 
being equal, physical prowess has meant success and 
survival. Accordingly our racial consciousness favors 
physique and renders it an element of natural prestige. 2 
The statistics of executives, it will be recalled from Chapter 
III, indicate men of relatively large size, taller and heavier 
than intellectuals and surpassing in both these respects 
also the men who held similar but less important posi- 
tions. Such men in the competition for executive pre- 
ferment are favored because their size is impressive. 

2. Emotional Control. — As a usual thing, the stream 
of consciousness flows along smoothly. But the unex- 
pected dams the stream, the current is thrown back 

1 Bruce was riding up and down his lines when an English noble, 
mounted on a powerful charger and heavily armed, rode out to challenge 
a Scottish noble to single combat. To the horror of his army, the king 
himself sprang forward to accept the challenge. The two warriors 
charged upon each other in full view of their respective armies. But 
Bruce, nimbly avoiding his opponent's lance, rose in his stirrups and 
with one mighty blow of his battle ax crushed the helmet of the English 
knight and clove his head from crown to chin. Robert Bruce, in the eyes 
of his rugged troopers, was a king fit to rule. 

2 It is doubtful if the meeting of men is ever free from an undercurrent 
bearing this thought, " What would result if we laid hold of each other?" 
Civilization, indeed, will go far before it reduces men to brains and 
stomach. 



no PERSONALITY 

upon itself, and there ensues turmoil in the mind. Such 
a result among organizations of men is common; the 
unexpected often does appear, since rarely in the collec- 
tive life is the road well charted and fully policed. 
Wrecks, fires, wars, floods, panics, are merely the more 
dramatic incidents of a life in the jungle, in the pres- 
ence of the unknown and the unseen. The mental 
currents are often caused to surge back upon themselves, 
and we know not what to do. 

Indecision does not sweep all men alike. Because of 
his physical prowess — height, weight, strength, vigor 
— the favored person may withstand the influence 
shaping others in attitudes of fear or anger or grief. 
By refusing to assume these attitudes, he escapes the 
emotions which normally accompany them. Or the 
significance of the situation may possibly escape him. 
In this case he is fearless because he does not know. 
Or the event may fail to impress his consciousness be- 
cause this is dominated by conceptions already held. 
The mind focused upon some central purpose is freed 
from marginal excitations because it will not attend to 
them. 

Emotional power, strength, control, result. The 
favored individual becomes director, not follower. He 
is fearless in the midst of those who fear, decided though 
surrounded by indecision, calm when waves of anger 
sweep followers, self-contained while others wonder, 
positive in self-feeling in the midst of fawning adulation 
and eflacement. 

3. Intellectual Ability. — The mass of phenomena 
in which we live furnishes an intellectual test par excel- 
lence. It must be perceived, for one thing, and in this 
some fall behind at once. They " never noticed that." 
This matter perceived is next to be woven into concepts. 
Here is another test, the ability to organize knowledge. 



NATURAL PRESTIGE in 

The mental stock is to be surveyed and kept in shape. 
This demands memory, the ability to know what one 
has and produce it when needed. These concepts are 
then brought to bear upon questions which arise. Judg- 
ment results ; and this is surely a test of note. Finally, 
there is the attitude toward new material, for the indi- 
vidual's world is not fixed but in process. Can the 
intellect make room for this new material, under its 
influence modifying old concepts or shaping up the new 
concepts which the facts demand? Here, too, is a 
test which probes deep into one's intellectual capacity. 

Men under these tests are classified and ranked in 
an intellectual hierarchy. In times of need, the lower 
ranked turn toward the topmost — " He knows.' ' 
Adherence is gained through superiority of intellect. 

4. Socialized Nature. — Men must work together 
for common ends, a necessity in which lie both the 
origin and development of conduct. Now the action 
termed " good " is that which in general favors this 
working together ; " bad " conduct is that which on 
the whole makes collective action difficult or impossible. 
With this practical test as a standard the group passes 
upon the sentiments held by its members. Love, hate, 
gratitude, scorn, envy, revenge, sorrow, and sympathy, 
singly, or in widely varying combinations, all are ap- 
praised, both in respect to the sentiments themselves 
and the particular occasion when manifested. 

Here again men may be ranked. Selfishness, boorish- 
ness, criminality, all actions detrimental to the collec- 
tive welfare are considered reprehensible; the indi- 
viduals characterized by them are ranked low and, 
moreover, if below a certain standard, are jailed or 
possibly electrocuted. To the contrary, refinement, 
manners, tolerance, sympathy, ability, and willingness 
to play the social r61e gracefully and devotedly, all 



ii2 PERSONALITY 

bespeak the socialized nature. It was no accident that 
the uncouth General Jackson possessed courtly manners 
when President. 

The sources of personality, it is believed, are here 
revealed, and if so the whole phenomenon is placed upon 
a naturalistic basis. Personality consists in those posi- 
tive qualities which have meant survival to the group in 
its struggle for existence. The present exercise of this 
power, consequently, is colored by long-past racial 
experience. To this fact is due its mysterious element ; 
it entails reaction to conditions once vital yet simple, 
however changed these conditions may now be. With 
this qualification in mind, that group survival is to be 
interpreted in its broad sense, personality indicates 
merely a pronounced development of essential qualities. 
Such constitutes natural prestige. 

EFFECT UPON FOLLOWERS 

Natural prestige, viewed in the light of its evolution, 
has meant two very different things, either repression, 
when opposed to the individual, or elation, when sup- 
porting this individual and opposed to his enemies. 
Which reaction would be aroused by his appearance 
obviously depended upon whose side the man of power 
was found. Personality thus possesses both positive 
and negative appeals, its influence extending from the 
extreme of one through intermediate stages to the ex- 
treme of the other. This would necessarily be so, 
although in much current discussion of that " indefin- 
able something termed personality " this fact is not 
grasped and confusion results. With this distinction 
in mind, however, it is clear that personality has not one 
but a range of appeals, and in this range certain typical 



EFFECTS OF PERSONALITY 113 

appeals may be roughly set apart for discussion. These 
are as follows : 

1. Fear. — There is no emotion more deep-rooted 
and powerful. Once roused, it haunts the mind and, 
by bringing back in dreams and in waking life alike the 
terrifying impression, it becomes the great inhibitor of 
action, both present and future. 1 Whoever can wield 
such a weapon effectively thereby establishes ascen- 
dancy in marked degree. And this certain leaders have 
been able to do. 

William Pitt in his ready control over Erskine and 
Sheridan " seemed to exercise a sort of fascination of 
terror." Said a circuit member in speaking of the 
famous cross-examiner, " Russell produced the same 
effect upon a witness that a cobra produces on a rabbit." 
Webster, when thoroughly roused and indignant, had a 
darkness in his face and a gleam of dusky light in his 
deep-set eyes unnerving to contemplate. 2 

All strong men, to a certain extent, possess this power. 
Even though for us, we are a bit apprehensive of what 
might occur were they against us. 

2. Subjection. — Subordination, as has been pointed 
out, far from being solely an affair of the strong arm, is 
in harmony with certain traits of human nature. Nega- 
tive self-feeling is at least as universal as positive self- 
feeling. Men desire the support of the strong and are 
ready to yield. As was said of Webster, " he was so big 
and so strong, so large in every way, that people sank 
into repose in his presence, and felt rest and confidence in 
the mere fact of his existence." Real satisfaction this. 

1 McDougall, Social Psychology, 55. 

2 Dr. Cadman, of Dorchester, told of a young minister, fresh from 
Andover, who when he found Webster's piercing eyes fixed upon him, 
was struck dumb in the midst of his discourse and sank into his seat, 
leaving the doctor, more accustomed to face the distinguished hearer, 
to finish the sermon. Harvey, Daniel Webster, 400. 



ii 4 PERSONALITY 

The leader, moreover, is elevated far beyond his real 
merit ; it is the tendency of idealism thus to do. Every 
follower becomes a self-accuser, drawing a sweet sad- 
ness from contemplating his inferiority and exalting his 
chief into a mystical hero. 

Here is a rift which in individual experience widens 
as the years pass. Constant subjection breeds the 
servile nature. Subordination means increased subor- 
dination. But the face of the leader, to the contrary, 
becomes more impressive, his glance more command- 
ing, his carriage more dignified. Judges, bishops, busi- 
ness executives, grow with the years. 1 

j. Wonder. — The unfamiliar possesses attraction 
power. The instinct of curiosity is an active seeker 
after experiences, and in each unusual there is opened 
up a new possibility. When the explanation has once 
been made, interest lags. Curiosity does not flourish 
in well-tilled fields. The strange, the unusual, or the 
inscrutable 2 both attract and arouse fear, a mental 

1 The judges in the Cadi's divan at Tunis thus impressed Greenville- 
Nugent : "What is finer than the face of one who has been accustomed 
to wield authority over the common herd? Decisions that none may 
question, glosses which none may contradict, pardon which none other 
dare bestow, doom which no other dare pronounce, the power which 
for years has been theirs alone, is stamped upon their thoughtful coun- 
tenances ; and this moral force is more potent to sway the masses who 
crouch at their feet than are all the swords of the Janissaries who guard 
their portals." Cited by Ross, Social Control, 113-114. 

2 The power of mere inscrutability, as Cooley points out, arises from 
the fact it "gives a vague stimulus to thought and then leaves it to work 
out the details to suit itself. . . . Those who are mentally abnormal 
present in a striking form the inscrutable in personality; they seem to 
be men, but not such as we; our imaginations are alarmed and baffled. 
In the same way a strange and somewhat impassive physiognomy is 
often, perhaps, an advantage to an orator, or leader of any sort, because 
it helps to fix the eye and fascinate the mind. Another instance of the 
prestige of the inscrutable is the fascination of silence, when power is 
imagined to lie behind it. It is the same with personal reserve in every 
form ; one who always appears to be his own master and docs not too 



INSCRUTABILITY 115 

state which, now set on advance, now on retreat, leaves 
its possessor subject to him who has invoked it. 

Wonder in this way increases personal ascendancy. 
The reserve and taciturnity of the Swedish monarch, 
Charles XII, " baffled all conjecture." Cecil Rhodes 
proves " an engima to every one who has come in con- 
tact with him." Disraeli was " a mystery man by 
instinct and policy." Washington, writes Senator 
Lodge, was " the most absolutely silent man that his- 
tory can show." General Grant at the close of councils 
in the commander in chief's tent left his voluble generals 
mystified by his taciturnity. And perhaps less dramatic, 
yet basing its appeal upon this same power of wonder, is 
the business rule of the head of Chicago's Clearing 
House : " Let the other man do the talking." 

4. Admiration. — Admiration is a compound emo- 
tion. It results from the fusing of wonder and subjec- 
tion. The one draws the beholder toward the object, 
the other humbles him before it. 1 Through a twofold 
relation, therefore, admiration insures ascendancy. 
" Dear to us are those who love us," says Emerson, 
" but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for 
they add another life ; they build a heaven before us 
whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply us 
new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us 
to new and unattempted performances." 

The admired person exists in the mind as an ideal, 
and hence may be quite superior to the real person. 
Although William the Silent had bungled the campaign, 
even those victories won being achieved through neglect 
of his orders, he was early hailed as the Father of his 

readily reveal his deeper feelings, is so much the more likely to create 
an impression of power. He is formidable because incalculable." 
Human Nature and the Social Order , 313-315, passim. 
1 McDougall, Soc. Psy., 128. 



n6 PERSONALITY 

Country and in his honor the whole population sang 
the Wilhelmuslied. The magical effect of Garibaldi's 
voice and presence were such that before a single great 
victory had been won the worship of him rivaled that 
of Mazzini. And the career of a certain popular states- 
man proves that in America, as well, successive defeats 
may serve merely to increase admiration for the stand- 
ard bearer. 

5. Awe. — When admiration is blended with fear, 
the result is termed " awe." The new product may 
be compounded in varying proportions, in some cases 
the fear element predominating and in others the ad- 
miration element being superior. But in the emotion, 
at any rate, is much of power. Gladstone always made 
his hearers believe that the subject he discussed was 
that upon which the foundations of heaven and earth 
rested, a fact which accounts for much of his long- 
continued supremacy. Webster's similar power of 
exciting awe is shown in the remark of a bitter aboli- 
tionist opponent present at the 7 th of March speech : 
" When Webster, speaking of secession, asked ' What is 
to become of me,' I was thrilled with the sense of some 
awful impending calamity." 

6. Reverence. — When Hiram Johnson in the campaign 
of 191 2 came before the Connecticut State Convention, 
posters and papers had proclaimed him as " The man 
who single-handed cleaned up California ! The man 
who in one session of the legislature forced the enact- 
ment in the law of every single pledge of the platform 
upon which he was elected. The man who changed 
California from one of the worst boss-ridden states of 
the Union into one of the freest and most progressive in 
less than six months' time." The effect upon the dele- 
gates when he appeared and spoke was tremendous. 
Men and women became worshipers. 



THE HUMAN TOUCH 117 

The psychological explanation of this and similar 
instances may be stated thus : Here was a power, 
admired yet feared, something to rouse awe. Yet all 
the time it was felt that this power was seeking to do 
good, and hence was entitled to gratitude. The blend- 
ing of these two emotions, awe and gratitude, creates 
reverence. 1 When personal ascendancy has reached 
this plane of positiveness, the strongest lever of control 
is threat of resignation. The group may disagree with 
the revered one, but live without him it cannot. 

7. Sympathy. — A popular leader is often claimed to 
be " so human." The meaning is evidently that through 
all the varying social relations he is able to maintain 
the personal touch. What he presents is congenial to 
the minds of followers. A bond of good will and fellow- 
ship is established ; he evokes trust and like feeling. 

Power to arouse sympathy is, of course, increased by 
similar experiences; as the clear and ready speech of 
Haywood, his I. W. W. followers say, was " learned 
way down in the depths of the dripping mines where 
the straining timbers screech." The loyalty of not a 
few organizations is increased by the feeling, " The old 
man knows. He's been through the mill." When 
natures similarly socialized are brought together, sym- 
pathy naturally develops. 

All really popular leaders have possessed this sym- 
pathetic personal touch. So cordial was the handclasp 
of Blaine that each person felt he had met a friend whom 
he was glad to see. " His genial presence," said an 
English bishop of Phillips Brooks, " seemed to fill the 
room." Thanks to his name, in William the Silent one 
may imagine a dark, brooding figure, but as a matter 
of fact a pleasant way, a ready identification of faces, 
a cordial greeting to all comers, were such natural habits 

1 McDougall, op. cit.j 132. 



n8 PERSONALITY 

to him that even opponents admitted, " Every time the 
Prince lifts his hat he wins a friend." 

8. Love. — Sympathy normally merges into love, and 
a vast amount of this affection enters into everyday 
human relations. It is love's tendency to seek out the 
object of its affection and find pleasure in its presence 
and in its service. It causes a general outflowing of 
emotions into the fuller life, an activity and control 
so admirable as to have won praise from moralists in 
all ages, 1 and similarly to have insured the ascendancy 
of not a few leaders, even prosaic men of affairs. In- 
deed, whoever wins the love of men, because he deserves 
it, has at his command the deepest currents of life. 

USE OF PERSONALITY 

Through natural prestige is opened the possibility 
of much power. Its series of influences — considered 
above point by point but in practice often inextricably 
mingled — ranging from fear to love, appeal to that 
which lies deepest in human experience. But execu- 
tives too often overlook these ancestral springs, even 
scorn these elusive elements of motivation. Basing 
their appeal upon externals, frequently upon the crudest 
and most materialistic of externals, they pose as " practical 
men." Such, however, they are not. 2 For being prac- 

*"He that loves," wrote St. Augustine, "flies, runs, and is joyful; 
is free and not restrained. He gives all for all and has all in all, since 
he is at rest above all in the one highest good from which every good 
flows and proceeds. He regards not gifts, but beyond all good things 
turns to the giver. Love oft knows not the manner, but its heat is more 
than every manner. Love feels no burden, regards not labors, strives 
toward more than it attains, argues not of impossibility, since it believes 
that it may and can all things. Therefore it avails for all things, and 
fulfils and accomplishes much where one not a lover falls and lies help- 
Cited by Cooky, op. cii., 128. 

2 "Why have the newspapers so delighted to vilify mc?" inquired an 
ex-railroad president recently forced out under public pressure. "I 



HUMANIZING THE ORGANIZATION 119 

tical means nothing more than employing workable 
methods, and in personality there is a vigor and width 
of appeal no wise executive will overlook. To him the 
question is how. 

It is easy to personalize the relations in a family, 
social club, or small workshop, in fact it would be diffi- 
cult not so to do ; but should the organization increase 
in size and complexity, numbering its employees by 
thousands, with many of them assigned to branches 
widely separated, mechanism too readily crowds out 
personality, and the human touch is lost. However 
dynamic the chief, to those on the periphery his real 
self is in danger of being too distant to appeal. Here is 
an elusive yet very real problem. 

The sway of the personal self evidently must be 
expanded; fortunately, there are various methods by 
which this may be done. " I go out through the plant 
as often as I can and make it a point of nodding to 
every one," says one executive. A series of " Good 
morning, George ! " " How's that sick mother of 
yours, James?" or "They tell me you're doing good 
work, John ; keep it up," as he walks down the aisles, 
is the plan of another. If walking will not cover the 
distance, there is trolley, train, and automobile; the 

thought if a man knew his business and worked at it hard and produced 
the best product he could with the materials available, that was enough. 
But apparently it was not. . . . What should a man do to prepare for 
the kind of storm that hit me? " 

"He might have made more friends outside of the line of business 
friends with the public." 

"But I hadn't the time. I was too busy. I have had six weeks' 
vacation in forty-four years. How could I find the time to meet your 
newspaper reporters and cultivate the good will of editors? I engaged 
a man to do that work. I said to him, 'Now you attend to all of that.' 
Wasn't that enough?" New York Times, Oct. 27, 1913. 

His successor evidently thinks not. To date he has written a book, 
delivered numerous banquet addresses, cultivated the reporters, and is 
already noted for cordiality. The policy apparently succeeds. 



120 PERSONALITY 

business manager, as well as the political campaigner, 
should show himself to " the people." This often is 
more readily accomplished if isolated workers are drawn 
in from the outposts to one central location. At branch 
office, district meeting, convention, or trip to the home 
plant, face-to-face relations are established and family 
ties cemented. 

To an appreciable degree, especially if aids are selected 
with this end in view, personality may be organized. 
Employees near the leader can pass his spirit along. 
The human touch, transmitted through district manager, 
works superintendent, department managers, and fore- 
men, may thus bind together the " old man " and his 
newest raw recruit. Or, varying the method somewhat, 
the chief's intentions are humanized and distributed 
far and wide by his personal dynamo, the social secretary. 

The human element can also be transmitted whenever 
written and printed matter is issued. Letters in general 
may mirror the personality of the writer, and, even 
though many correspondents dictate, the human-in- 
terest element introduced by each can be made repre- 
sentative of house policy. Cards, booklets, wrapping 
paper, advertising, all can be made distinctly indi- 
vidual ! An occasional letter it may be well worth while 
to write in long-hand. 

The ways and means are many but the principle is 
clear. Personality has a value and this the executive 
may realize in practice. Whether it be by warm hand- 
clasp, cheery greeting, open office, walk, telephone, 
public address, travel, or letter, the true leader humanizes 
his group. Every event and every detail throughout 
the entire organization is then significant, because 
personal. 



EXERCISES AND READINGS 121 



EXERCISES 

1. Show how, due to its method of appeal, men of widely vary- 
ing qualities may all possess personality. 

2. Point out the changing type of his influence as a man of 
personality passes from stranger to friend. 

3. Is the large physique of more service as energy producer. 
as shown in Chapter II, or as a means of impressing others? 

4. A leading mayor recently canceled all his dinner engage- 
ments that he "might have more time to work." Was his rea- 
soning sound? 

5. The following have been written of a reformer, a politician, 
a prelate, and a baseball magnate, respectively: "a long, lean, 
hatchet face, with dark brows and brooding eyes" ; "six feet tall, 
all bone and sinew, with a square jaw and piercing gray eyes"; 
"few profess to be able to fathom him" ; "a smiler and a hand- 
shaker." How would each affect followers? 

6. How may personality be developed? 

READINGS 

Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order, Ch. IX. 



CHAPTER XI 

Imitation 

"A man overtops others, not only by his stature, but as well 
by what he stands on." — Edward A. Ross. 

Men have a tendency to do as others do, normally 
in common enterprises trooping along together. So 
deep-rooted in human nature is this tendency, that some 
psychologists have termed it the instinct of imitation. 
In its lowest form it is merely an impulse toward like 
action, as in a football game one finds himself pushing 
against his neighbor's shoulder when the home team 
makes a line plunge. In its highest form, to the con- 
trary, it is conscious and volitional in the extreme ; as 
the apprentice hand day after day seeks to duplicate the 
work of journeyman or manager. Between these dif- 
ferent aspects are numberless gradations. However, 
in each the activity of the initiator induces like action 
in the subject. 

Upon what depends the direction and scope of imi- 
tation? Its causes are complex, and may be analyzed 
into a number of factors. In general, nevertheless, 
these may be reduced to one, the superior is imitated by 
the inferior. This process may be considered somewhat 
in detail. 

IMITATION PRESTIGE 

Superiority, as a breeder of imitation, has its basis in 
the conventions of society. A person possesses imita- 



IMITATION PRESTIGE 123 

tion power because of his relative position in the social 
hierarchy. If it were not so, the current values would 
be upset and collective action rendered ineffective. 
But he is copied who exemplifies the things his group 
most approves. Now what in general are these? 

1. Positions of Power. — In government, church, 
education, or industry there is a hierarchy of positions, 
the upper tiers, by the mere fact of relative rank, en- 
abling their possessors to bedazzle subordinates and 
secure imitation. 

" The example of an emperor," says Dill, 1 " must 
always be potent for good or evil. We have the testi- 
mony of Pliny and Claudius, separated by an interval 
of three hundred years, that the world readily conforms 
its life to that of one man, if that man is the head of the 
state. Nero's youthful enthusiasm for declamation 
gave an immense impulse to the passion for rhetoric. 
His enthusiasm for acting and music spread through all 
ranks, and the Emperor's catches were sung at wayside 
inns. M. Aurelius made philosophy the mode, and the 
Stoic Emperor is responsible for some of the philosophic 
imposture which moved the withering scorn of Lucian. 
The Emperor's favorite drug grew so popular that the 
price of it became almost prohibitory. If the model 
Vespasian's homely habits had such an effect in reform- 
ing society, we may be sure that the evil example of his 
spendthrift predecessors did at least as much to de- 
prave it." 

In the position itself there is imitation prestige. 
The mere title " Senator," " Bishop," " Superintendent," 
" General Manager " has a power all its own. English- 
men, though unable to discern clearly the distant figure, 
recently shouted themselves hoarse because " The Presi- 

1 Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, 31, cited by Ross, 
Soc. Psy., 166. 



i2 4 IMITATION 

dent of France is in that carriage." The presumption 
is that whoever holds the position of power is superior. 
He is imitated accordingly. 

2. Possession of Wealth. — In a democratic and 
materialistic society the glamour attaching to position 
passes to the possessor of goods. Wealth implies 
superiority. " Verily a man with money is the top of 
all creation." His equipage is the finest, his costly en- 
tertainments dazzle. Heavy sermon, cartoon, and news- 
paper copy, while possibly critical, all tacitly assume 
his money bags are the real source of power. He 
possesses what all secretly long for, and his ways they 
fawningly ape. 

A shrewd newspaper owner has thus expressed it: 1 
" Those who have not succeeded in amassing money 
worship those who have, and these worshipers are in 
the majority. Their every thought is to become like 
the rich ; to emulate their every act and success. It is a 
sensation with them ; they crave sensation. . . . Give 
the people what they want. Give them an aristocracy. 
Tell them how these men and women have become rich. 
Tell the people how they spend their money ; what 
they say ; how they live ; what their ambitions are. 
Tell it with pictures. Tell it interestingly and we will 
sell this paper," — an analysis which is a sad commen- 
tary, no doubt, but true. It at least sold papers. 

With wealth thus prized, its possessor is elevated. 
His prestige and hence imitation value varies according 
to stock holdings and country place. In a most literal 
sense it becomes true that unto him that hath it shall 
be given. 

j. The Achievement of Success. — The foremost deity 
in America is, after all, the God of Success. The require- 

1 Mr. Pulitzer of the New York World, cited by Ross, Soc. Psy. y 
176-177. 



THE WORSHIP OF SUCCESS 125 

ments of Mammon are too often met by birth, marriage, 
favor, or luck to bedazzle a people so little removed 
from the pioneer life. For pioneering demands personal 
virtues, strength, and capacity, and to tame the wilder- 
ness those energetic migrants were drawn from Europe 
who, there protestants and op posers, were ready to abolish 
all titles of nobility and set about guaranteeing equality 
of opportunity for all. 

But with no titled aristocracy, landed estates, elab- 
orate ceremonials in state or church, our society needed 
some method of distinction to remove it from the 
commonplace. This was found in achievement. It 
clothes with prestige the man able to do things. It 
creates a new aristocracy, the elect being merchant 
princes, manufacturers, capitalists, railroad magnates, 
inventors, and officials. Its chief hero was once a rail- 
splitter, its emphasis on self-made men so accentuated 
that aspiring politicians furbish with care rusty remem- 
brances of barefoot boy, harvest fields, and working 
one's way through college. 

New pinnacles of fame are thus constructed, the 
ambitious being as eager to scale these as ever was 
knight to win tourney or emperor to swell his coffers 
with tribute. For success elevates one into the aris- 
tocracy of achievement and this insures prestige or 
imitation power. 1 

1 The glamour surrounding achievement is, of course, disputed by the 
prestige accorded birth. Colonel Higginson gives this amusing illus- 
tration: "When Theodore Parker first visited Cincinnati, at that time 
the recognized leader among Western Cities, he said he had made a great 
discovery, namely, that while the aristocracy of Cincinnati was unques- 
tionably founded on pork, it made a great difference whether a man killed 
pigs for himself, or whether his father had killed them. The one was 
held plebeian, the other patrician. It was the difference, Parker said, 
between the stick 'ems and the stuck 'ems; and his own sympathies, he 
confessed, were with the present tense. It was, in other words, aris- 
tocracy in the making." 

On the other hand, says Professor Ross, "occasionally the strong 



126 IMITATION 

The particular elements upon which prestige depends 
exist as a composite in practice, in general being a reflec- 
tion of the group desires. Position, wealth, and achieve- 
ment represent merely three phases of these desires; 
there are many others, and the relative emphasis of all 
changes with the times. But whatever they be, in any 
particular situation they dazzle and lure, elevating cer- 
tain favored figures into examples clothed with prestige 
and securing widespread imitation. This is no mere 
rippling on the surface of the social seas ; for the most 
part men adopt creeds, manners, styles of clothing, 
modes of entertainment, political and philosophic views, 
not because of utility but through prestige alone. Imi- 
tation penetrates to the still coves and has power to 
stir the social deeps. 

4. The Idealizing Tendency. — Ability to radiate 
waves of imitation may depend far less upon what one 
is than what he is thought to be. In a very real sense 
a person imagined exercises greater social power than 
ever possible for the actual person. His followers 
have remade the very human figure, touching up the 
high lights, smoothing out defects in the shadows, 
enveloping all in a mystic haze. Louis XIV might have 
been no hero to his valet, but the French people during 
more than two thirds of his long reign made him into 
a god and worshiped him. They distorted him, it is 
true, just as other people have distorted Lincoln and 
Garibaldi and Bismarck, but it was a labor of love, 
and they humbled themselves before that which they 
had made. 

climber has a proper pride in his achievement and flaunts it in the face 
of the aristocracy of birth. Pope Urban IV, the son of a cobbler, who 
himself had worked at the trade, chose a cobbler's tools as his symbol. 
Senator Sawyer of Wisconsin, who made a fortune in sawmilling, put 
on his carriage, the Latin vidi, which, being translated, signifies, 'I 
saw!"' Cf. his Soc. Psy., 169-173. 



MEN REAL AND IDEAL 127 

Because of this idealizing tendency, a leader's fame 
often far transcends his real merit. The first sight of 
a man of whom one has heard much — a president, rail- 
road builder, banker, or financier — is thus apt to be 
disappointing. Under calm scrutiny the mystic halo 
fades. " He looked to me," Webster said of Jefferson, 
whom he met at Monticello, " very different from any 
ideal I had formed of him." 

The rift between fact and fancy widens with death. 
Biographers discover in the great man's youth instances 
of prophetic precocity. Criticisms fade and eulogies 
are accentuated until a wide discrepancy exists between 
current popular beliefs and earlier contemporary ac- 
counts. A mythical personage is shaped up, often from 
materials sadly deficient in hero stuff. 1 Admirers draw 
from this, their creation, that vague stimulus so con- 
genial to the constructive imagination. Reinterpreting 
their hero from age to age, they make of him a vast 
radiating center, a most precious and undying part of 
the social heritage. Such is Mohammed, or Napoleon, 
or Caesar, or Lincoln, or any of those countless souls to 
whom the idealizing tendency has vouchsafed immor- 
tality. 

IMITATION IN MANAGEMENT 

One is inclined to pride himself upon independence, to 
magnify his individuality or originality ; consequently, 

1 Says Mommsen of Cato's death: "It is an affecting fact, that on 
that world-stage on which so many great and wise men had moved and 
acted, the fool was destined to give the epilogue. He too died not in 
vain . . . republican opposition borrowed from Cato its whole attitude, 
— stately, transcendental in its rhetoric, pretentiously rigid, hopeless, 
and faithful to death ; and accordingly it began even immediately after 
his death to revere as a saint the man who in his lifetime was not in- 
frequently its laughing stock and its scandal." History of Rome, IV, 
S36-537- 



128 IMITATION 

the wholesale influence of imitation is minimized. " As 
a matter of fact," says James, 1 " we rind ourselves be- 
lieving, we hardly know how or why. Mr. Balfour gives 
the name of l authority ' to all those influences, born 
of the intellectual climate, that make hypothesis pos- 
sible or impossible for us, alive or dead. Here, in this 
room, we all of us believe in molecules and the conser- 
vation of energy, in democracy and necessary progress, 
in Protestant Christianity and the duty of fighting for 
1 the doctrine of the immortal Monroe,' all for no rea- 
son worthy of the name. We see into these matters 
with no more inner clearness, and probably with much 
less, than any disbeliever in them might possess. His 
unconventionality would probably have some grounds 
to show for its conclusions ; but for us, not insight, but 
the prestige of the opinions, is what makes the spark 
shoot from them and light up our sleeping magazines 
of faith. Our reason is quite satisfied, in nine hundred 
and ninety-nine cases out of every thousand of us, if 
it can find a few arguments that will do to recite in case 
our credulity is criticized by some one else. Our faith 
is faith in some one else's faith, and in the greatest 
matters this is most the case." 

Most of our mental furniture is borrowed. The 
beliefs thus held may easily be disproved by analysis, 
nevertheless they shape our daily endeavor. Among 
such beliefs may be mentioned : " manual labor is 
degrading;" "pecuniary success is the only success;" 
"civic worth is measured by pecuniary success;" 
" conservatism is good form whereas radicalism is 
vulgar; " and that " things are beautiful in proportion 
as they are costly." 2 The poor in general ape the 
rich, none being more ready to apply the commercial- 

1 Will to Believe, o. 

2 Ross, Soc. Psy., 111-116. 



THE POWER OF EXAMPLE 129 

class standard of success than those who have the 
least. 1 

Whatever is of such social import must have a value 
in management. Whether it manifests itself merely 
as an impulse, enlists volition, or, looking at its influence 
from a somewhat different angle, shapes the reigning 
social values, imitation possesses a power not to be 
ignored. By what means may this power be realized 
in practice? 

The followers of great captains have felt the enthu- 
siasm of example. Exclaimed Garibaldi, " Let him 
who loves his country in his heart and not with his lips 
only, follow me! " Zeno aroused his troops by declar- 
ing he personally would lead them, but when through 
fear he dared not do so, his Empire of the East was lost. 
Royal titles, long hair, and hanging beard could not 
keep a Merovingian on the throne that had known 
Clovis and was to see Charlemagne. Henry III of 
France sought to render himself imposing through 
stately ceremonials. Chamberlains, chief physician, 
cupbearer, officers of state, cardinals, and princes 
crowded the royal bedroom when His Majesty for break- 
fast sipped a cup of tea. Crowds of courtiers fawned 

1 This distortion of values is well shown by Miss Addams : "During 
one of the campaigns a clever cartoonist drew a poster representing the 
successful alderman in portraiture drinking champagne at a table loaded 
with pretentious dishes and surrounded by other revelers. In contra- 
distinction was his opponent, a bricklayer, who sat upon a half-finished 
wall, eating a meager dinner from a workingman's dinner-pail, and the 
passer-by was asked which type of representative he preferred, the pre- 
sumption being that at least in the workingmen's district the brick- 
layer would come out ahead. To the chagrin of the reformers, however, 
it was gradually discovered that, in the popular mind, a man who laid 
bricks and wore overalls was not nearly so desirable for an alderman as 
the man who drank champagne and wore a diamond in his shirt front. 
The district wished its representative 'to stand up with the best of 
them,' and certainly some of the constituents would have been ashamed 
to have been represented by a bricklayer." Democracy and Social 
Ethics, 257-258. 



i 3 o IMITATION 

upon him all day long, and bands of singers followed 
him to his bed. But Frenchmen despised his weak 
personality, and the power based on ceremonials crumpled 
under Navarre's challenge at Ivry : " Comrades, here is 
your king. Should your standard fall, rally round my 
white plume; you will find it on the path of victory 
and honor ! " 

Such men are a radiating center for imitation. Alex- 
ander covered with wounds, Caesar drawing his sword 
and using it like the rest, Cortes sparing himself no 
danger while leading his little band in Mexico, Charles 
XII of Sweden again and again recklessly exposing 
himself to death and throughout his last campaign 
faring worse than the meanest of his soldiers, William 
the Conqueror after the battle of Hastings calmly 
divesting himself of shield and helmet battered by many 
blows, these are the captains who have captured the 
hearts of followers. Yet their policy, in spirit at least, 
is possible to present-day executives. Let even the 
most systematic of these at times shake off routine 
bonds, stand shoulder to shoulder with subordinates, 
and be baptized anew on the firing line. 

Imitation, moreover, as personality, can be increased 
in its scope through organization. Apprentices are 
given efficient workmen as a model for copy. Employees 
noted for industry are placed in conspicuous positions 
where the sight of their activity may tone up the whole 
force. The men selected for promotion must qualify 
as examples. The incompetent clerk, the mistake in 
shipping address, the tactless treatment of an important 
customer, such incidents are not permitted to demoralize 
the force by receiving undue emphasis. Evil can be 
imitated as well as good. But by deftly removing error 
from the foreground, the bulletin pictures the winner of 
" our last sales contest," the promotion write-up indicates 



OUTER AND INNER IMITATION 131 

that " our organization " does seek out merit for re- 
ward, the sales letter mentions that " our new car " 
has just been purchased by the governor. In short, the 
limelight plays upon accomplishments, thus endowing 
them with prestige that they may increase many fold. 
From officers nearest him to distant employee and cus- 
tomer, all become banded together by that imitation 
prestige whose source is the executive himself. 

Three factors may now be considered which somewhat 
condition the use of imitation in management : 

(1) The Content is First Imitated, Later the Form. 1 — 
The newly landed immigrant is an odd figure, a bit of 
the old world in the new ; but he does not long remain 
so. His foreign-style clothing is discarded after a time 
for garments of American cut ; his language, manners, 
diet, amusements, are reshaped, and he becomes as one 
of us. It seems as if, first copying us in these externals, 
in the end he becomes an American in spirit. Quite 
the contrary, in fact, occurs. He was conquered first 
of all by Americanism ; copying its externals has been 
simply carrying out more completely the inward imi- 
tation felt even before migrating. Outer conformity 
is merely evidence of the inner change which preceded it. 

Similarly the executive who masters subordinates 
first of all masters them in spirit. This thoroughly 
done, his walk, peculiar phrases, dress, perhaps even his 
energy and efficiency, spread throughout the organiza- 
tion. That is, when the subordinate is free to follow 
his inclination, he first imitates the spirit and later on 
the letter. 

When, however, imitation is made compulsory, the 
reverse is true. The inferior adopts the externals of 
the copy forced upon him, but the inner spirit is all his 
own. In religious conquests, for instance, the conquered 

1 Tarde, Laws of Imitation, 199-204. 



132 IMITATION 

perform the rites of the new religion, but the faith is 
that of their fathers. 

In practice these principles would work out somewhat 
as follows : When the mere form suffices, imitation may 
be forced. The raw recruits are ruthlessly drilled into 
line. The apprentice is ordered to copy the product 
of the journeyman and the movements through which 
it was produced. In short, when the standard practice 
is clearly established, its imitation can be enforced. 
Externals suffice when routine rules. 

But throughout vast segments of collective endeavor 
no standard practice has yet been reached. Printed 
instructions may tell the assembly-room workman 
exactly how many turns to give bolt A ; they can never 
be all-embracing for the salesman nor lawyer nor engi- 
neer nor for any of those millions whose effort must 
conquer the unexpected and whose success is linked up 
with initiative. Esprit de corps then rises in value. Sub- 
ordinates adopt the central policy or spirit of the house, 
but in each concrete situation they employ whatever 
means will best realize this policy in practice. When 
the content thus alone suffices, imitation becomes free, 
resting on its prestige value. 

(2) The Superior is not Imitated with Discrimination. 
— " When there is a real personal superiority," says 
Cooley, 1 " ascendancy is seldom confined to the traits 
in which this is manifested, but, once established in 
regard to these traits, it tends to envelop the leader as 
a whole, and to produce allegiance to him as a concrete 
person. This comes, of course, from the difficulty of 
breaking up and sifting that which presents itself to 
the senses, and through them to the mind, as a single 
living whole. And as the faults and weaknesses of a 
great man are commonly much easier to imitate than 

1 Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order, 309-310. 



EFFECTIVENESS IN IMITATION 133 

his excellences, it often happens, as in the case of Michel- 
angelo, that the former are much more conspicuous in 
his followers than the latter." 

It requires a high degree of skill so to maneuver 
oneself and all other heads in an organization that de- 
sired qualities are strikingly set forth for imitation and 
all others rendered ineffectual through suppression. 
Education is one solution, since on the part of subordi- 
nates this following the good and rejecting the unfit 
involves rational imitation. 

(3) Different Bodily and Mental Attitudes vary in 
Degree of Tr admissibility } — Motor impulses are ex- 
tremely infectious. When bodies of men keep time to 
music, even non-marchers find themselves in step. 
Yawning is contagious, gestures and postures follow the 
smart-set model, dancing as a fad spreads from city to 
city. In short, with all things not the objects of con- 
scious attention men are highly imitative. 

Emotions spread readily among men. In boom towns 
all are infected with hope, and in bank panics all with 
fear. Hate, enthusiasm, religious fervor, fanaticism, 
each eludes all logical tests and skips nimbly from mind 
to mind. Slowest of all is the imitation of ideas, es- 
pecially of the coldly scientific sort. These appeal to 
intellect and involve deliberate weighing, which con- 
sumes time ; and frequent rejection, which in so far 
as this one mind is concerned bars their spread. The 
careful scientist, far less quickly than the fervent poet, 
secures a national hearing. 

How the executive shall use his imitation policy thus 
depends somewhat upon what is to be transmitted, and 
the time available. The old-time revivalist, the trade- 
union agitator, the promoter of boom towns, the director 

1 Ross, Soc. Psy., 124-130 passim. See also 121-145; and Tarde, 
Laws of Imitation, 194. 



i 3 4 IMITATION 

of all forlorn enterprises where men must act by faith 
not fact, successfully appeal to emotional imitation. A 
sales convention, disorderly in its proceedings, may so 
seethe with enthusiasm for " The House" that it is no 
place for the interchange of ideas, and these latter are 
then offered for imitation through house organ or letter. 

EXERCISES 

i. Should the emperor go to the front when technically the 
war can be directed better from the distant capitol? 

2. How prevent a man of marked capacity but dissolute habits 
from demoralizing the organization? 

3. Do our contemporary leaders exert more or less influence 
than those dead? 

4. How was it that Henry IV of France disguised as a wood- 
cutter was rebuffed by the lady who smiled upon him as king? 
Was it true love? 

5. Do we accept the reigning values of our own class or of the 
class to which we aspire? 

6. What purpose in the promoter's offer of special rates, even 
gifts of stocks, to influential persons? Of the high salaries being 
tendered "dummy" directors? 

READINGS 

Ross, Social Psychology, Chs. VTI-XI. 
Tarde, The Laws of Imitation, Ch. VI. 



CHAPTER XII 

Suggestion 

"Man is a suggestible animal, par excellence, and the laws of 
hypnosis work on a great scale in society." — Boris Sidis. 

The skilled hypnotist seems to possess a magic, 
uncanny power, and one does not readily cease to 
wonder at his control. Yet the hypnotist, with all his 
wands and mysterious passes, exhibits merely the exag- 
gerated forms of a phenomenon going on about us 
continually, but which, because of its prevalence and 
unobtrusive action, draws no particular attention, in 
fact is commonly overlooked. Seemingly it may make 
very little difference whether clerks ask, " Shall we send 
the package? " or, " Shall we send the package or will 
you take it with you? " but a big department store 
found that merely adding the latter phrase cut their 
delivery costs thousands of dollars. This firm merely 
capitalized suggestion for its own benefit; and others 
may go and do likewise. 

The politicians, in fact, have been doing this for a 
long, long time. At opportune times they spread 
broadcast the slogan, " Pass Prosperity Around," which 
being interpreted means " Elect me ! " Or, as a recent 
presidential candidate assured the voters of Illinois, 
" whenever dangers threaten our nation a man is always 
raised up able to solve them," quite as deft, and in this 
case quite as workable a suggestion as ever emanated 
from conjurer's wand. In the speeches of Henry IV of 

135 



136 SUGGESTION 

France we find little argument but skillful flattery, 
much praise of himself and energetic exhortations to 
others, vague but often-repeated promises of future 
benefits — and such Henries have multiplied in our 
day. 

Suggestion should not be disdained because its use 
has victimized the gullible, for it serves honest executive 
as well as charlatan. We are not at present concerned 
with the question, whether these various means of 
motivation are put to good use or evil, but solely with 
their particular effectiveness in controlling men. Now 
every normal mind is suggestible; that is, it tends to 
accept with more or less conviction propositions sub- 
mitted to it for which logically adequate grounds are 
lacking. 1 Moreover, consciousness being in its very 
nature motor, the immediate effect of feeling is move- 
ment. Logical grounds or none, the mind acts upon 
its convictions ; " the abrupt entrance from without 
into consciousness of an idea or image which becomes 
a part of the stream of thought and tends to produce 
the muscular and volitional effects which ordinarily 
follow upon its presence," 2 viewed in its effects upon 
us as social beings, is a dominant motivating force. 
" The Thirty-second Demibrigade," said Napoleon, 
" would have died to a man for me because after Lonato 
I wrote, ' The Thirty-second was there and I was at 
ease.' " 

SUGGESTION POWER 

Suggestions produce results, and hence are true forces. 
Their power of impact is conditioned by the following 

factors : 

1 This is the criterion set by McDougall. Cf. Soc. Psy., 07. 

2 The definition of suggestion offered by Baldwin. Handbook of 
Psychology, II, 297. 



SUGGESTION PRESTIGE 137 

1. Prestige of the Suggestor. — If the suggestor is an 
inferior, his proposition probably will be ignored, if 
not disdained. The idea may fare little better if it 
comes from an equal. But let it emanate from a recog- 
nized superior, a priest, a teacher, a general manager, an 
honored statesman ; the critical faculties are lulled by 
his prestige and the suggestion produces conviction. 

The impact of suggestion is rendered more powerful 
on the suggestor's part by his faith in self} Las Casas 
once said to Napoleon : " Sire, at Potsdam, had I been 
you, I would have taken the sword of Frederick the Great 
and I would have worn it." The answer of the master 
was : " I had my own." Faith in self serves as a spark 
in tinder, kindling in others by suggestion the powers 
required for its own verification. 

Another means, and one closely associated with faith, 
is self-respect. Subordinates' respect for their chief is 
at bottom but a sympathetic reflection of his own self- 
respect. He passes current with them at the value he 
has set upon himself. By thus causing others to share 
this value, the man of strong self-respect increases both 
his positive self-feeling and his adherent's negative 
self-feeling, thereby expanding his own suggestion 
power. 

Still another element is energy. A conflict of forces 
is involved when two persons approach each other, 
and in a group this is commonly multiplied into a sharp 

1 "The men of ardent convictions who have stirred the soul of crowds, 
the Peter the Hermits, the Luthers, the Savonarolas, the men of the 
French Revolution, have been able to call up in the souls of their fellows 
that formidable force known as faith, which renders a man the absolute 
slave of his dream. ... Of all the forces at the disposal of humanity, 
faith has always been one of the most tremendous, and the gospel rightly 
attributes to it the power of moving mountains. To endow a man with 
faith, is to multiply his strength tenfold. The great events of history 
have been brought about by obscure believers, who had little beyond 
their faith in their favour." Le Bon, The Crowd, 135-136 passim. 



i 3 8 SUGGESTION 

contest. Men of little energy are unable to withstand 
the mental blows rained upon them, and take to cover. 
Vigorous natures, to the contrary, cast off the sugges- 
tions impinging upon them. They hurl forth a veritable 
swarm of ideas and images. Instead of being shaped, 
they shape others. 

Closely related to energy is the objective temperament. 
It implies the outflowing nature, the freedom from self- 
examination, morbid analysis, and criticism. As was 
said of Napoleon, " Introspection was alien to his being ; 
his critical powers, if turned in for a time on himself, 
quickly moving back to work upon men and affairs." 
The introspective temperament necessarily directs the 
attention toward self, admirable enough, perhaps, for 
poets, philosophers, ethical teachers, and other students 
of the inner world; but the executive would possess 
an outer world. Objectivity is his. 

All these, however, are elements of personality ; and 
other qualities which might be mentioned could be 
classified either under that head or as aspects of imita- 
tion prestige. A more extended discussion is thus un- 
necessary. We may conclude by saying natural and 
imitation prestige fits a man to exercise a vast suggestion 
sway. 

2. Suggestibility of Subjects. — The fundamental char- 
acteristic of suggestibility is that normal inhibition is 
broken down and the mind of the subject lies open, 
more or less at the mercy of the incoming idea or image. 
Upon what factors does this condition, termed sugges- 
tibility, depend? 

First may be mentioned credulity. A body of knowl- 
edge, well organized, critical, may be lacking. Witness 
the belief of children in fairy tales, of primitive folk in 
magic incantations, of rural dwellers in rain-making 
and crop-insuring devices. Because belief is natural 



SUGGESTIBILITY 139 

while the critical faculties must be developed and 
trained, suggestion tends to run riot in ignorant 
minds. 

A second element is found in temperament. Every 
one is familiar with the onward-looking, optimistic 
temperament, as contrasted with the critical, self- 
centered type. A person of this latter nature is liable 
to be hostile toward suggestions, taking pride in his 
own conclusions and coolly resisting the intrusion of 
others. The sanguine temperament, because its cur- 
rents are warm, ardent, and outward flowing, is a more 
cordial host. 

A third factor in an abnormal mental condition. This 
abnormal state may be no more serious than absence 
of mind. " An absent-minded professor is directed 
by his wife after dinner to go upstairs and change his 
clothes preparatory to receiving callers. On going in 
search of him after the callers have left, she finds him 
asleep in bed. Undressing had suggested • bed/ and 
bed had suggested ' sleep.' " * 

Fasting heightens suggestibility. The stable mental- 
ity by this means is dethroned, and the victim, often a 
religious enthusiast, is enabled to hear voices and see 
visions, not of God, but merely concoctions of his hyper- 
sensitive consciousness. There is much of sense in 
three meals a day. 

Fatigue, similarly, produces an abnormal state of 
mind with increased suggestibility. Wearied brain 
cells no longer are alert, critical; the bars are thrown 
down and all ideas are of equal value as they stream 
in and take possession of consciousness. Extravagant 
motor consequences at any time are liable to ensue. 

The essence of abnormality consists in a dissociation 
of consciousness, the separation of the higher control- 
fRoss, Soc. Psy., 18. 



140 SUGGESTION 

ling centers from the rest of the psychic stream. 1 This 
running a partition through consciousness holds the 
ordinary criteria of belief in abeyance and the sub- 
waking self becoming master, suggestibility is height- 
ened. In absence of mind this separation usually is 
slight, in hypnosis it verges toward the absolute. In 
general it may be said, degrees of suggestibility corre- 
spond to degrees of dissociation. 

j. Duration. — As constant dripping wears away the 
hardest stone, so continued hammering by suggestion 
reshapes consciousness. " It is not by advancing a 
political truth once, or twice, or even ten times," O'Con- 
nell once said, " that the public will take it up and finally 
adopt it. Incessant repetition is required to impress 
political truths upon the public mind. Men, by always 
hearing the same things, insensibly associate them with 
received truisms. They find the facts at last quietly 
reposing in a corner of their minds, and no more think 
of doubting them than if they formed part of their 
religious belief." 2 

It required four years of persistent endeavor before 
John Quincy Adams attained a position of importance 
in the senate. Moody from the provinces bombarded 
London with revival suggestion constantly for two years 
before he swept down upon the city as a conquering 
general. Hiram Johnson traveled over California for 
nearly seven months hammering away at one issue, 

1 "In the normal state the waking, controlling consciousness is always 
on its guard, and when enticed, leaves its ground only a single step, and 
that only for but a moment. In normal suggestibility the psychical scar 
is faint; the lesion affected in the body of consciousness is superficial, 
transitory, fleeting. In abnormal suggestibility, on the contrary, the 
slit is deep and lasting — it is a severe gash. In both cases, however, 
wc have a removal, a dissociation of the waking from the subwaking, 
reflex consciousness and suggestion being affected only through the 
latter." Sidis, Psychology of Suggestion, 8o. 

2 Dunlap, op. cit., 46. 



THE POWER OF SUGGESTION 141 

closing nearly every speech by saying : " Remember this, 
my friends : I am going to be the next Governor of Cali- 
fornia ; and when I am, I am going to kick out of this 
government William F. Herrin and the Southern Pacific 
Railroad. — Good-night." 

In the mental life as in nature there is a season for 
seed sowing and a season for harvesting. 1 The reitera- 
tion of suggestions apparently may be harmless amuse- 
ment. But in the end the orator has woven his spell, 
the trade-marked article is sought, the missionary has 
remade his converts, the immigrant is fused in the 
American melting pot. The impact of suggestion after 
suggestion has broken down inhibition, and the idea or 
image is firmly planted in the mind. 

4. Volume. — A suggestion has enormous penetrating 
power when from all sides it beats upon consciousness. 
" Scarcely any one," says Bagehot, 2 " can help yielding 
to the current infatuations of his sect or party. For 
a short time — say some fortnight — he is resolute ; 
he argues and objects; but, day by day, the poison 
thrives, and reason wavers. What he hears from his 
friends, what he reads in the party organ, produces its 
effect. The plain, palpable conclusion, which every 
one around him believes, has an influence yet greater 
and more subtle; that conclusion seems so solid and 
unmistakable ; his own good arguments get daily more 
and more like a dream. Soon the gravest sage shares the 

1 The old-time revivalist holding camp meetings shrewdly recognized 
this fact. "We gave invitation to all the Presbyterian ministers to unite 
with us at our quarterly meetings," wrote one of these; "but they gen- 
erally pleaded as an excuse that they had appointments to fill, and Fri- 
day, Saturday, and Sunday would pass off without any aid from them ; 
but on Monday we generally saw some of their ministers in the congre- 
gation, but having our plans filled up for that day we consequently paid 
no attention to them ; for we were fully convinced that they only wanted 
the Methodists to shake the bush, and they would catch the birds." 

2 Physics and Politics, 93-94. 



i 4 2 SUGGESTION 

folly of the party with which he acts, and the sect with 
which he worships." Whoever lives in an atmosphere 
of infectious belief by what chance will not inhale it ? 

Shrewd leaders have not failed to note the power of 
mass suggestion, and in the beginning have carefully 
nursed their psychic product until it acquires strength 
to sweep the opposition. The " straw vote " result is 
widely circulated. Early successes at the polls are 
proclaimed " test votes," with headlines screaming 
" First blood for Blank ! " At opportune times tons 
of campaign thunder are dumped into the mail racks. 1 
Hordes of hired spellbinders are turned loose, their 
leathern lungs serving to increase the psychic reso- 
nance. The candidate issues " An Address to the 
American People." Suggestion acquires momentum. 
The psychological effect of seeing state after state go 
for a certain candidate usually is that more states do 
likewise. Citizens are assured " everybody's doing 
it." They imbibe the perfervid atmosphere — and vote 
while in that condition. The election returns indicate 
a glorious victory for the plain people. 

Such are foundations upon which suggestion power 
rests. Prestige, suggestibility, duration, volume, these 
four, if left to run riot, are able to dethrone the strongest 
character 2 ; in lawless mob, financial panic, religious 

1 It is said upon the authority of an official competent to state the 
facts that during the presidential campaign of 191 2 the government 
printing office turned out 50,000,000 documents. Stacked up in a single 
pile these would reach more than thirty miles into the sky, and if the 
separate pages were placed end to end, they would girdle the earth five 
times, enough being left over to reach from Washington to the Philip- 
pines ! We may well sympathize with the New York Sun's announce- 
ment : "The Political Debating Society and Anti-Business Association 
at Washington adjourned yesterday." 

2 A reporter was thus influenced by Francis Schlatter, the "Messiah" 
of 1895 : "As I approached him I became possessed of a certain super- 



MAKING USE OF SUGGESTION 143 

craze, and kindred delusions, they have checkered his- 
tory with the deepest tragedies of the psychic life. But 
they have as well melted crude natures together, stiffened 
worthless men into martyr mold, imbued them with that 
fervor seen in patriotic defense or holy war. Whether 
its results be good or ill does not here concern us so much 
as this fact, that suggestion has power within groups of 
men. 

SUGGESTION IN PRACTICE 

When suggestion is to be employed, there are several 
methods which, if taken as guides, will considerably 
increase its effectiveness. These may now be con- 
sidered. 

1. Suggestion should vary in Directness according to the 
Suggestibility of the Subject. — In order that suggestion 
may accomplish its ends, it is necessary that there be 
a cleft in consciousness ; that is, the higher controlling 
phase of mind must be separated from the lower brain 
centers. In abnormal suggestibility, this cleft is deep, 
a gash so serious that the subwaking self lies unprotected 
before the incoming idea or image. Direct suggestion 
may then be employed. But under normal condition, 
the cleft is slight, easily closed ; consciousness must be 

natural fear, which it was difficult to analyze. My faith in the man 
grew in spite of my reason. As he released my hands my soul acknowl- 
edged some power in this man that my mind and my brain seemed to 
fight against. When he unclasped my hands I felt as though I could 
kneel at his feet and call him master." Sidis, Psy. of Sug., 302-303. 

The pioneer preachers during the widespread revivals occurring about 
a century ago joyfully, though without understanding, related instances 
of how those coming to break up the meetings were themselves humbled 
and converted, "struck down by the hand of God." Peter Cartwright 
tells of a bully who had stealthily approached the altar from the rear, 
with a number of frogs strung on a piece of hickory bark, his intention 
being to slip them over the revivalist's head. But "the spirit which 
moved over the multitude struck him down at full length; he roared 
like a bull in a net, and cried aloud for mercy." Autobiography, 380. 



i 4 4 SUGGESTION 

caught napping and the suggestion, like a thin blade, 
deftly inserted. Only the indirect approach will here 
succeed. 

In practice, the normal mind is usually approached 
under cover of a slantwise suggestion, this gradually 
increasing in directness as the suggestor comes more 
and more to dominate the suggested. In twenty minutes 
the suave salesman who opened the canvass with com- 
pliments soothing as a day in June is transformed into 
a tyrant who bluntly directs the prospect to " sign right 
here." The street-corner agitator first hammers home 
the claim, " Labor is the only source of wealth " ; after- 
wards he declares, " You're big fools to let the capitalists 
keep on exploiting you " ; and only later on he says, 
" Each throw in a dollar to help us fight your cause. " 
We may conclude that the normal mind is influenced 
best by slantwise suggestion, but that heightened sugges- 
tibility permits entrance to more and more direct sug- 
gestions, in hypnosis even direct appeal succeeding from 
the first. This general truth is capable of fruitful 
application. 

2. Suggestion Values vary according to Degree of Posi- 
tiveness. — The suggestor works as an artist, a stroke 
here, a stroke there, but every stroke one that counts, 
every move directed toward the picture desired. The 
leading lawyer of Iowa, it is said, will take nothing but a 
strong case. His record constitutes positiveness. Pat- 
rick Henry had wonderful address in leading off the minds 
of his hearers from unfavorable points, a plan usually 
followed by men who win cases. In commercial con- 
cerns, the wrangling employee is dismissed, the credit 
man perfects himself in extracting money painlessly; 
" the customer," says Marshall Field, " is always 
right." Industry sees the rise of the " Publicity Engi- 
neer," a 1 rouble mender, a harmonizer, a creator of good 



KEEPING SUGGESTION POSITIVE 145 

will who keeps his corporation favorably before con- 
sumers. Suggestion is kept positive. 

Another means is to acknowledge no defeat. Sam 
Houston maintained his personal dignity under every 
circumstance, and after his deposition as governor he 
walked the streets of Austin as if he had been victor in 
the contest. During the greatest reverses of his career, 
it is said of Daniel O'Connell that " his language in 
public was as hopeful as ever. His very presence in- 
spired confidence." Such suggestions go far to neutral- 
ize defeat ; its power is lessened when treated as if it 
were not. 

This indicates a point of view concerning the treat- 
ment of criticisms. A reply, exhaustive and reiterated, 
especially in cases where it cannot be made crushingly 
convincing, frequently defeats its own ends by suggest- 
ing that the criticism itself is well founded and a body 
blow. Clay, for instance, merely weakened himself by 
his many replies to Kremer's accusation of a " deal " 
between himself and Adams, the famous " coalition of 
Blifil and Black George, — the combination, unheard 
of till then, of the Puritan with the blackleg." Much 
more effectively did Webster, after a two-hour attack had 
been made upon him in the senate, rise with great delib- 
eration and dignity, and after a telling silence say, " Mr. 
President, if the Senator who has just taken his seat is 
not too much fatigued, I move that the senate do now go 
into an executive session." 

Expectancy also makes for positiveness in suggestion. 
Consider the effect upon the fleet when just before 
Trafalgar Lord Nelson signaled from the flagship, 
" England expects every man to do his duty." Re- 
formers, divines, philanthropists, leaders of all causes 
which live by faith alone, have invariably been great 
expecters. They have first convinced themselves that 



i 4 6 SUGGESTION 

these expectations would be realized. And this faith, 
by stimulating the onward-moving impulse in followers, 
insures its realization. 

By keeping suggestion positive, the field of conscious- 
ness is more or less limited ; the attention is kept from 
irrelevant matters ; there is monotony and inhibition. 1 
A suggestion made under such conditions not only has 
power, but this power, in addition, is exerted in the direc- 
tion which the suggestor would have. 

3. The Infectiousness of Suggestion renders Cumulative 
Results Possible. — Suggestion is a mass phenomenon ; 
its sweep varies with compactness. The Kentucky 
revivalists of a century ago, when they had drawn people 
from miles around into one dense throng at the camp 
meeting, transformed even idle onlookers and scoffers 
into shouting converts. The agitator, the reformer, 
the lodge organizer, the orator, the sales manager, alike 
believe in mass influence ; and the ticket seller for the 
fake show says, " Move up close, boys." When men 
pack together, voluntary movements are restricted, in- 
dividuality wilts. Let attention be fixed by some stir- 
ring phrase, — " Liberty," " Democracy," " Votes for 
women," " 54° 40' or Fight," — by some calamity or 
national insult or crisis, contagion sweeps the throng ; a 
crowd in the psychological sense is formed. 

This is no mere sum total of the individuals com- 

1 This process is especially marked in the forming of a mob. "When 
the preacher, the politician, the stump orator, the ringleader, the hero, 
gains the ear of the crowd," says Sidis, "an ominous silence sets in, a 
silence frequently characterized as 'awful.' The crowd is in a state of 
overstrained expectation; with suspended breath it watches the hero 
or the interesting, all-absorbing object. Disturbing impressions are 
excluded, put down, driven away by main force. So great is the silence 
induced in the fascinated crowd, that very frequently the buzzing of a 
fly, or even the drop of a pin, can be distinctly heard. All interfering 
impressions and ideas arc inhabited. The crowd is entranced, and 
rapidly merges into the mob state." Psy. of Sug., 300. 



CONTAGION 147 

posing it, but a new psychic product with characteris- 
tics peculiar to itself. This new product is irrational 
and impetuous because people do not think under 
excitement. The subconscious self dominates; waves 
of emotionalism beat upon the brain, suggestibility is 
heightened, the reverberations from each member enor- 
mously multiply the contagion. Suggestions are em- 
braced with fervor; the throng feels itself possessed 
of irresistible power, and its members, since the crowd 
is anonymous, freed from individual responsibility, set 
about its acts with irresistible impetuosity. 

Because its force is cumulative, suggestion may 
throw a vast power into the hands of one man, the 
leader. At a gesture from the Little Corporal, regi- 
ments of French youth strove like super-men amid war's 
carnage. Himself only a boy of ten, Nicholas of Cologne 
drew one hundred thousand into the Children's Crusade, 
led them through hardships which thinned their ranks 
a third. A penniless adventurer, John Law, so dazzled 
the populace with visions of wealth that all Paris went 
money-mad. A hitherto unknown Jew, Sabbathai 
Zevi, threw his countrymen into religious intoxication 
upon declaring his Messiahship ; business men devoted 
themselves to prayers and penitence, the synagogues re- 
sounded with cries, sighs, and sobs for days at a time, the 
fame of Sabbathai spread throughout the world, and 
many in prophetic rapture raved, " True Messiah of 
the race of David ; to him the crown and kingdom are 
given ! " And much could be said of Dowie and Miller 
and Smith, and a host of others who have waved the 
magic wand over brain-stormed followers. 

But this, it will be said, is mobbishness ; few groups 
ever exhibit such extreme contagion, and what sensible 
executive, moreover, would wish that they should? 
Quite so. But the difference is one of degree, not kind. 



148 SUGGESTION 

The street riot and the directors' meeting, however sharp 
their contrast may be, have at least this element in 
common, their collective action is influenced by sugges- 
tion. This power, coming into play whenever men asso- 
ciate together, always to a degree overrules the indi- 
vidual mind and dictates the decision. Suggestion 
power, therefore, is something which every organization 
head should develop and guide to his own ends. 

EXERCISES 

i. Account psychologically for a financial panic. A run on a 
bank. How employ suggestion to avert either ? 

2. Illustrate how the advertiser employs suggestion. The 
salesman. The revivalist. The borrower. 

3. Analyze from the standpoint of suggestion the careers of 
Dowie, Joseph Smith, Captain Cook. 

4. Explain, by personal experience if possible, the theory of 
hypnotism. 

5. Analyze Antony's funeral oration with respect to directness 
of suggestion. {Julius Ccesar, Act III, Sc. II.) 

6. What basis has the Indian motto, "A stuffed prophet shall 
not know secret things"? A bank president's statement, "The 
best way to drown the anvil chorus is to keep on delivering the 
goods "? 

7. Discuss the press agent as a factor in political campaigns. 
As an ally of public service corporations. 

READINGS 

Le Bon, The Crowd, Book II, Ch. III. 

Sidis, The Psychology of Suggestion, Chs. I, XXVII, XXXIII. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Emulation 

"For men 'tis not enough to be alive ; 
The noblest joy of being is to strive." — Stark. 

"We believe that the good men are the men who want to 
win." — Walter H. Cottingham. 

In the late '6o's two great railroads, one starting at 
Sacramento, California, the other at Omaha, Nebraska, 
were pushing across the Western plains toward each 
other. On many a day the construction gangs of the 
two companies laid more miles of track than an ox 
team averaged in a day's travel on the old overland 
trail. " Such performances as these," says Carter, 1 
" attracted the attention of the newspapers in the 
East, which began to send their star correspondents to 
the front and to announce the number of miles of track 
laid each day, as baseball scores are announced nowa- 
days. 

" All this notoriety spurred the rival construction 
gangs to renewed exertions and made them boastful. 
One day the Union Pacific laid six miles of track. The 
Central Pacific thereupon laid seven miles of track. 
Upon hearing of this feat the Union Pacific laid seven and 
a half miles. 

" The Central Pacific authorities declared their men 
could lay ten miles in one working day if they wanted 

1 When Railroads were New, 254-255 passim. 
149 



150 EMULATION 

to. Vice-President Durant, of the Union Pacific, 
offered to bet ten thousand dollars that they couldn't 
do it. The money was covered, and April 29, 1^869, was 
set as the day for the race. 

" A large party of distinguished guests assembled 
to see the bet decided. Four thousand men, trained by 
the discipline of four years to the precision of a machine, 
began their mighty task on the stroke of seven o'clock. 
Most of the working force was composed of Chinamen, 
but the Chinamen were not heavy enough to lay the 
rails. 

" For this work there were eight stalwart Irishmen, 
whose names have been handed down to posterity — 
Michael Shay, Pat Joyce, Thomas Daly, Mike Kennedy, 
Fred McNamara, Ed Killeen, Mike Sullivan, and George 
Wyatt. They handled the rails at the rate of one 
minute forty-seven and a half seconds to each two hun- 
dred and forty feet. 

"In six hours they had laid eight miles of track, so 
they nailed a board with the word ' Victory ' on it to a 
stake, and stopped for dinner on the boarding train, 
which was now run up. After the usual noon rest of 
one hour, work was resumed. At exactly 7 p.m. ten 
miles and two hundred feet of track had been laid. . . . 
Then, to prove that the job was well done, Campbell, 
the boarding boss, got on the locomotive and ran the 
heavy train back over the ten miles of newly laid track 
in forty minutes." Under the spur of emulation was 
performed that day a track-laying feat never since 
equaled. 

Rivalry places the social self in jeopardy. It forces 
upon this self the prospect of failure, of being relegated 
to inferior positions ; and the prospect of ascendancy as 
well, of displaying power before onlookers. It thus 
becomes an impulse of the most far-reaching social 



MAKING WORK A GAME 151 

importance, 1 and exercises an influence upon the organ- 
ism of an intensely stimulating sort. Laboratory experi- 
ments indicate that the prick of emulation retards 
fatigue and liberates latent energy not otherwise avail- 
able. 2 Here is a force ; how may executives employ it ? 

THE EMULATION POLICY 

The emulation policy rests upon the assumption that 
deep down in the heart of every man is the desire to 
win, that all men are not equal and should in tests be 
allowed to prove they are not. The lethargic and the 
humanitarians, it is true, exalt equality ; but the ordi- 
nary many love power and self-assertion and the discom- 
fiture of competitors. The vast majority of men are 
anxious to align themselves, their pulse being quickened 
when a race is on. Accordingly, the contest element is I 
introduced whenever possible ; work is made a game. 

In introducing competition or the game element, 
rivalry may be instituted between : 

(1) Leader and Followers. — This is a very old method, 
according to Tacitus it having prevailed among our 

1 Of no other peoples is this so true as of the western Europeans. 
"With us," says McDougall, "it supplies the zest and determines the 
forms of almost all our games and recreations; and Professor James is 
guilty of picturesque exaggeration only, when he says 'nine-tenths of the 
work of the world is done by it.' Our educational system is founded 
upon it; it is the social force underlying an immense amount of stren- 
uous exertion ; to it we owe, in a great measure, even our science, our 
literature, and our art ; for it is a strong, perhaps an essential, element of 
ambition, that last infirmity of noble minds, in which it operates through, 
and under the direction of, a highly developed social self-consciousness. 
The emulation impulse tends to assert itself in an ever-widening sphere 
of social life, encroaching more and more upon the sphere of the combative 
impulse, and supplanting it more and more as a prime mover of both 
individuals and societies." Soc. Psy., 294. 

2 See Triplett, " The Dynamogenic Factors in Pacemaking and Com- 
petition," Am. Jour. Soc, VI, 507-533; and Wright, "Some Effects of 
Incentives on Work and Fatigue," Psychological Rev., XIII, 23-34. 



152 EMULATION 

early ancestors. The ancient German chieftain was 
disgraced if excelled in valor, and since it was consid- 
ered equally disgraceful for a warrior to be surpassed 
by his chief, we have here some explanation for the 
fierce courage shown by both. It may be said to be a 
racial trait that subordinates expect in their leader a 
pattern for emulation. Should the executive satisfy 
this expectation, he possesses a two-edged weapon; it 
sets forth right action and represses all other. When 
Alexander's soldiers dissented from his plans for wider 
conquest, he quashed the threatened mutiny by point- 
ing out how he himself had fared. Charlemagne, ac- 
cording to the old tale sung at castle dinner gatherings, 
once made firm his wavering soldiers by putting into 
their mouths these tormenting words, " We left him to 
besiege Narbonne alone ! " Carnegie's rise from one 
dollar and twenty-five cents a week, the push of the 
office manager once office boy, the vigorous example 
of executives everywhere, furnish a keen incentive to 
subordinates to go thou and do likewise. 

(2) Individuals and Groups within Organization. — 
The employee pitted against his co-workers strives for 
first place within his group, then for supremacy over the 
winner in a competing group, a plan which, skillfully 
adjusted to include men of every rank, subjects the 
whole organization to the emulative impulse. 1 

1 This has been well worked out by President Cottingham of the 
Sherwin-Williams Co., whose sales force is probably unsurpassed in the 
world. "We have what we call the 'Top-Notcher Trade Sales Compe- 
tition,' through which we urge every member of our selling organization 
to better efforts by reason of honors and money prizes. Every member 
of the selling force tries to be the top-notcher in his district, the top- 
notchcrs of a district are in competition with other districts, and the 
district managers are keen to turn in higher sales than other districts, 
thereby invoking a competition from the lone salesman up to the branch 
managers within the very headquarters office. " Printers 1 Ink, Feb. 13, 
1914. 



KINDS OF CONTESTS 153 

Where the individuaPs efforts are so merged into 
those of the groups that his own results cannot be 
sifted out for comparison, competition is instituted 
between these groups instead. Carnegie pitted plant 
against plant. Corey as head of one plant, he made 
pace setter for Schwab, and Peacock for both the others. 
This was a method the " Little Iron Master " probably 
learned while employed by the^ Pennsylvania system. 
Our railroads for purposes of administration are sepa- 
rated into divisions, and whereas British managers never 
know what other sections of the road are doing, American 
managers constantly compare these units in their per- 
formance. Statistics and cost records are said to be dull 
reading, but never to groups vying for superiority. 

(3) Organization and "Enemy." — This type of con- 
test, " our organization vs. competitors," supplies much 
of the driving force among officials in business and 
industry ; yet it has not been utilized as it should be 
among the humble employees. They, too, will come 
to feel zest by being brought into the great game. The 
normal individual quite readily develops loyalty to his 
own group and enmity toward all competitors. The 
enemy has long meant merely the outsider, and a belli- 
cose disposition has never been lacking in mankind. 

In politics, especially, advantage is taken of this fact. 
The contest is termed a " campaign," and much is said 
of the party " war chest," " carrying war into the enemy's 
country," " laying siege to his stronghold," " first 
blood," " fight to the finish." Upon the least show of 
apathy, spellbinders and candidates alike employ this 
picturesque language, bloodthirsty, drawn from war 
and prize ring. During the last presidential election, 
one candidate assures us, " I want to fight for the liber- 
ties of the American people." Another says he is 
" proud to fight shoulder to shoulder with the men and 



i54 EMULATION 

women in the ranks." After the ballots are counted, 
the successful candidate finds the results " a clear-cut 
victory for the people " ; the defeated one declares " the 
fight has just begun." By such tactics an election 
arouses tremendous interest, and since the struggle for 
orders is quite as keen as the struggle for votes, the 
wise manager will pass the news along. 

(4) Worker and Records. — Each summer hundreds 
of players and millions of " fans " become thoroughly 
stirred over certain columns of percentages on the score 
sheet, a clear indication of how stimulating a mere 
record-breaking contest may be. It means satisfac- 
tion to salesman, batter, or pieceworker to beat his last 
year's record. Like a tantalizing enemy this shade of 
his former self has risen before him, and he has now 
bowled it over — prowess is still his ! 

Comparisons of all sorts are possible and workable. 
It may be " this week with last week," " this week 
against the same week last year," " that top-notch 
record of Smith's," or scores of similar plans. Setting 
in advance the result desired is another method. The 
set task is a challenge. Even in factories where piece- 
work is done, a ticket on which the office states the 
amount expected that day brings increase of output. 
If the worker himself sets up a mark for attainment, 
the same result is secured. Even boasting may yield 
the forward impulse, for the boaster places himself in 
jeopardy and onward is the way out. 1 

1 President A. Montgomery Ward likes to hear his men talk of what 
they are going to do. "You see, men who talk that way have to make 
good or be humiliated. Their boastful words would be hard to swallow 
in case of failure. So they lie awake nights thinking how to win, get 
down early, and hustle. The whole place gets full of the infection. The 
other departments wake up and enter the race. And the result is a 
heavy gain all along the line and a fine esprit dc corps that keeps things 
on the go." Business Man's Library, IX, 9. 



PROMOTION 155 

(5) Individual and Advancement. — Human nature is 
an unfolding, a reshaping, always in process. The actual 
man is to his own consciousness often less real than his 
ideal self ; and the position held frequently has less power 
with him than that to which he aspires. The possi- 
bility of advancement thus introduces emulation in its 
subtlest form. And in so far as they have come to see 
this, executives realize the value inhering in a good pro- 
motion system and accept the view that each employee 
is a double, what he is and what he may be. 

Says President Woolley of the American Radiator 
Company : " In our own experience every young man is 
regarded in the light of a possible future executive. Our 
company has developed a plan of self-perpetuity. We 
have never gone outside of our own organization to fill 
executive positions, but each head is expected to de- 
velop and train his successor, so that when the time 
comes for promotion, there will be an available man to 
step into every place left open." * 

" I go over my pay roll every Saturday night, " writes 
another manufacturer, " to see whose salary I can 
raise. My men are no more anxious for advancement 
than I am to promote them." Carnegie made his steel 
mills forcing plants for men, drawing managers from 
the ranks and making millionaires of his young lieu- 
tenants. " Promotion," says A. Montgomery Ward, 
" is what we seek more strenuously than even our 
employees do ! " 

The promotion policy requires that men lacking 
promise be dismissed, and that around those retained 
every method of development be brought to bear. 
When these learn that capacity for advancement is the 
thing desired, they will respond with enthusiasm and 
efficiency. 

1 Business Man's Library, VIII, 6$. 



i 5 6 EMULATION 



EMULATION GOOD AND BAD 

The emulation policy presents some decided advan- 
tages. It is quick and vigorous in action. Witness the 
rush of men to a street fight, the immense throngs at a 
football game, the yell of delight when the politician 
" pitches into the bosses," the enthusiasm which marked 
the progress of the great " fighters " in a recent national 
campaign, 1 the resolve which lights the eyes of his 
hearers when the President calls for warriors of peace. 

Emulation may also be continuous in its influence, 
since the mind acts upon its opinions and nothing causes 
such zealous belief in these as having fought for them. 
The revolutionary struggles spread the ideals of Liberty, 
Equality, and Fraternity from philosophers to the far 
confines of France and made fervent advocates of a 
peasantry who hitherto were but men with hoes. The 
Boers never more revered the policies of Oom Paul 
than after the Transvaal had been laid waste in their 
defense. Similarly have been impressed the American 
love for liberty and toleration and freedom from taxation 
without representation ; and similarly may be impressed 
a belief in the superiority of one's own organization 
and willingness to strive mightily that its achievements 
be not surpassed. If ideas are to be made a continuous 
motivating force, let men fight for them. 

Emulation exalts the strong and efficient. The pre- 

1 A reporter gives the following description of Governor Johnson at 
Chicago in June, 191 2: "The first notes of his voice keyed up your 
nerves to a fighting pitch. We can't imagine any one's listening to 
Johnson for five minutes without wanting to fight — either to fight with 
him or to fight against him. His voice sounds just as an east wind feels. 
It grates and snarls and pierces, and puts you all on edge. The whole 
man goes with the voice. Every posture and gesture is one of inten- 
sity. His hands arc nearly always clenched. His muscles are tense. 
His jaw, a good strong fighting jaw, is set." And his running mate was 
like unto him ! 



A SPUR TO PROGRESS 157 

mium is placed on victory, and victory to be worthy must 
be won. All methods available for this purpose, be they 
old or new, it matters little, are pressed into service; 
others are eagerly sought, the sole criterion being, Will 
they prove effective? Hence competition insures rapid 
change, with a high death rate among practices hallowed 
by tradition. The backward look, blind worship of 
precedent, routine elaborated into " red tape," nepotism, 
all are " scrapped " under the ruthless demand for 
results at lowest unit cost. 

Even war for this reason has merit. It destroys the 
antedated and the useless, and especially in those of the 
offensive, it favors the open mind. The invaders, as 
Morris points out, 1 not only leave their country behind 
them, but much of their social heritage as well. " They 
march under new skies, over new soils, through new 
climates. They come into the closest contact with new 
customs, laws, and conditions. And their local preju- 
dices only partially march with them. The laws of 
the peaceful state are abrogated in the army. Its 
members are brought under other laws and discipline. 
Religious influences weaken. A sense of liberty fills 
the mind of the soldier ; expectancy arises ; new hopes 
and fears are engendered ; the old quiet devotion to law 
becomes a tendency to license. 

" Thus the mind of the soldier is in a state essentially 
unlike that of the peaceful citizen. It is in a state 
rendering it a quick and ready solvent of new experi- 
ences. All its fixity of ideas is broken up, the deep 
foundations of its prejudices are shaken, it is in a recep- 
tive condition; fresh thoughts readily pass the broken 
barriers of its reserve." 

Yet however valuable is the contest idea, if it is to 
be realized in practice, there must be something for which 

1 Quoted by Ross, Soc. Psy., 248-249. 



158 EMULATION 

to strive. This will no doubt readily be granted. Still, 
many an executive is now exhorting his men to climb 
mountains when he has scarce provided a little hill. 
To climb high men need a strong incentive. 

This incentive some have sought in cash prizes, in 
merchandise prizes, or a percentage on sales above a 
certain amount. 1 Simply because " $500 in gold for 
the best August sales record " has been offered, they 
would have a salesman vigorously tramping the blister- 
ing pavements, and he often fails so to do. Money 
motive must be supplemented by honor motive ; and 
this in turn by the joy there is in playing merely for the 
love of winning. The executive knows this is true of 
himself; not the money alone but the honor as well 
and the thrill to be in action playing as an expert the 
greatest game in the world, business. To men thus 
motivated the rewards become secondary; the accom- 
plishment primary. 

In practice — to point out another defect — emula- 
tion is often too restricted in its scope. When the compe- 
tition is announced, many, regarding themselves out- 
classed at the start, refuse to enter the lists. Others 
withdraw upon the slightest indication that their chances 
are poor. This narrowing continues until only a hand- 
ful really at heart are feeling the zest of contest. A 
difficulty of this sort should be obviated by a judicious 
system of handicapping or other method for insuring 
equal opportunity to all. 2 

1 See Ch. XVII on rewards. 

2 President Cottingham tells the plan followed by his company : 
"There are some salesmen who are in what might be termed fertile ter- 
ritory, where the number of sales and the amount reached would more 
than overbalance that of a salesman in a harder territory. It would 
be illogical to expect the hi^h results from a salesman in territory of 
small towns and sparse settlements as from the man in densely populated 
districts. To overcome this we get estimates for the coming year's 
business from the salesman himself, his district manager, the general 



RULES OF THE GAME 159 

Still another difficulty is that in the struggle for victory 
quality often suffers. The vote getter, the bricklayer, 
the evangelist, the salesman, under the competitive spur, 
may take an extremely shortsighted view ; " After us, 
the deluge ! " A wise selection of standards under which 
winners qualify is the surest way to obviate this defect. 

Emulation, moreover, readily degenerates into anger, 
envy, jealousy, and hate. Instead of the brisk but 
friendly pace expected, an executive too often finds win- 
ners vainglorious, losers disgruntled, selfishness exalted, 
and cooperation destroyed. The factional spirit creeps 
in, and the forward moving becomes nil. 

The emulative impulse, however, has merely broken 
its banks and flooded the fields. The margin between 
it and pugnacity, with its bitter surges of emotion, is 
narrow, yet the remedy is not entire suppression, as some 
have thought, but guidance. Under proper direction, 
its currents will steadily turn the wheels of toil. The 
need is but for rules of the game, and these enforced. 

In athletic contests, to take an illustration from a 
field in which competition holds first rank, emulation 
though intense is well restrained. Let the umpire, 
however, be unfair or unseeing ; there will be reenacted 
the wranglings which have broken up many a boy- 
hood game. Now it is because the rules of the game 
are either not well drawn up or properly executed that so 
much ill-feeling at present exists in politics and industry. 
And it is the wise manager who, before the competition 
is under way, plans so that it shall not run amuck. 

sales manager, and lastly from the chiefs in control. Then if a salesman 
overshoots the work of estimate, increases his sales to a greater degree 
than was estimated, his markings would be equally as high as those 
from the salesman whose sales totaled a greater amount in dollars, but 
whose sales did not represent the effort put forth by the One who made 
the smaller amount of sales in dollars and cents." Printers' Ink, Feb. 13, 
1914. 



i6o EMULATION 



EXERCISES 



i. In the construction-gang example given at the opening of 
this chapter note point by point the various elements of incentive. 

2. Should one go outside his organization in filling an important 
vacancy ? 

3. Why do so few men from the shops advance into managerial 
positions? 

4. What attitude do labor unions take toward the view, "once 
a laborer always a laborer"? Of what influence upon the labor 
problem ? 

5. With reference to some specific organization, what may be 
made the basis of a contest ? 

6. Mention the best contest you have witnessed, and outline 
the various elements through which its success was assured. 

READINGS 

McDougall, Social Psychology, Ch. XI. 

Hoyt, Scientific Sales Management, Chs. XIII-XIV. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Art 

"You call these toys?" observed Napoleon of the ribbons 
and crosses of his Legion of Honor. "Well, you manage men 
with toys! " 

The role of actor or stage manager is never without 
its influence in leadership. Chatham, it was claimed, 
upon meeting a bishop " bowed so low his nose could be 
seen between his knees." Sam Houston, an old asso- 
ciate remarked, was always acting; " he appreciated 
the value of a scene. " And quite as deft as playwright 
did Tetzel employ the paraphernalia of both church 
and state. The bells of town or city announced his 
approach ; the officials of the place, the citizens, and 
even the school children, marched in procession to meet 
him. A red cross, emblazoned with the Pope's coat of 
arms, preceded him. On a velvet cushion his papal 
commission was displayed. Once inside the church, 
the red cross was raised in front of the high altar, the 
indulgence chest was placed beside, and the real per- 
formance began. Indulgences were extolled as being 
manna dropped from Heaven, while other graphic pic- 
tures, drawn of Purgatory with seven years' penalty 
reserved for every mortal sin, terrorized his simple 
hearers. 1 

But all ordinary stage trappings were eclipsed by the 
elaborateness of the Ancient Regime. " You have seen 

1 Jacobs, Liither, 63-64. 

M 161 



162 ART 

no thing," says Chateaubriand, " if you have not seen 
the pomp of Versailles, even after the disbanding of 
the king's household; Louis XIV was always there." 
Says Taine, 1 " It was a swarm of liveries, uniforms, 
costumes, and equipages as brilliant and as varied as 
in a picture. It was made expressly to be painted, being 
specially designed for the pleasure of the eye, like an 
operatic scene." 

Formalism did not here extend its sway merely over 
the externals of life, the banquets, receptions, hunts, 
balls, weddings, and drives in state, but penetrated into 
every detail of his family, table, wardrobe, chamber, 2 
stable, or chapel. The king could not change his boots 
without a ceremony, in fact he could not reach the point 
of donning his shirt in the morning without having gone 
through four ceremonies, and this act involved a fifth. 
Louis himself was the central figure in the monarchical 
show, and, as Bolingbroke adds, if he was not the greatest 
king, he was the best actor of majesty, at least, that 
ever filled a throne. To what is due this motivating 
force found by Louis adhering in pompous parade, Tet- 
zel in dramatic picture of heaven and hell, Luther in 
his hymns, Houston in his sombrero ? 

Evidently to something deeply laid in human nature. 
And this upon analysis is found to be true. These 
leaders have molded men with the dramatist's touch, which 

1 The Ancient Regime, 91. 

2 The king's apartments are thus described: "Two principal digni- 
taries preside over this and each has under him about a hundred subor- 
dinates ... in all 198 persons for domestic service, like so many domes- 
tic utensils for every personal want or as sumptuous pieces of furniture 
for the decoration of the apartment. Some of them fetch the mall and 
balls, others hold the mantle and cane, others comb the king's hair and 
dry him after a bath, others drive the mules which transport his bed, 
others watch his pet greyhounds in his room, others fold, put on, and 
lie his cravat, and others fetch and carry his easy chair. Some there 
are whose main business it is to fill a corner which must not be left 
empty." Taine, op. cil. } 96-97. 



ART'S POWER OF APPEAL 163 

means that in one form or another they employed art. 
Now the essence of art is harmony ; its elements are fit- 
ness and beauty. From this more fundamental point of 
view, art is not something merely for the salon, but a 
living principle, a force which permeates all activity. 
Art for its own sake, a claim often urged, is basicly 
untrue; art is for life's sake and it rises to its highest 
plane of effectiveness only as it makes possible more life. 
Because of natural selection — and not due to some 
critic or a school which flourishes for a day and then is 
not — all its forms and phases have been woven into the 
social heritage and there has been developed so widely 
among men the feeling for beauty and the sense of the 
fitness of things. These things have made for survival. 

THE SERVICE OF ART 

Personal ascendancy, it would follow, does not rest 
solely upon doing things ; there must be method, fitness, 
workmanship, in a word, art. The principle is simple, 
its applications numerous. The Assyrian kings spoke 
no command save from the throne. Alexander in his 
victories had an eye to their dramatic effect, and as 
unique as his conquests was his method of celebrating 
them. Garibaldi, when he wished to meet his volunteers, 
appointed for assembly place the Piazza of St. Peter's 
— and he came late. Saladin builded such a Great 
Palace that of its size and splendor the Arabian histo- 
rians speak with bated breath. Robert Bruce before 
all his followers smote his English antagonist such a 
blow on the helmet that the ax clove his head from 
crown to chin. Louis Napoleon alternately played 
upon the French love for national honor and the glory 
of his family name. Andrew Jackson, to mention but 
one more example, created dramatic conflicts, himself 



i6 4 ART 

appearing as an invincible Hercules constantly meeting 
terrible monsters dangerous to the American people, 
and slaying them all with his mighty club. Such meas- 
ures as these, modified to fit the situation, bear fruit; 
the aesthetic nature is satisfied. 

They have a stimulating effect as well. In ancient 
Finland it was believed that canoes were better built 
when the " boat-building " song was properly recited 
by the craftsman, and no doubt this was true. The 
dancer is most agile when the music is stirring, the 
campaigner would have his brass band, Luther's oppo- 
nents sang themselves into his ranks through use of 
Protestant hymns, Moody had his Sankey, and work- 
men the world over sing songs of exhortation. Art 
stimulates, and, as may be observed again and again, 
under its influence one does not so easily succumb to 
fatigue. 

It is in times of war, however, that art as a stimulus 
attains its maximum. Here is demanded more than 
prompt, vigorous action and the delay of fatigue ; fear 
must be conquered and the passion of cruelty made over- 
mastering. This effect savages induce by sham fights, 
during which the timorous native stiffens his courage 
for the real onset ; or by war songs the lust for slaughter 
is provoked. " The savage blood of the Ahts," observed 
a traveler, 1 " always boiled when the war songs were 
recited, their fingers worked convulsively on the paddles, 
and their eyes gleamed ferociously ; altogether they 
were two hundred murderous-looking villains." Art is 
thus able to incite the savage to transient madness ; and 
similarly through the deadly impact of phrases such as, 
" Land for which our fathers died," " Give me liberty 
or give me death," " Remember the Maine," " Scot- 
land Forever," or by the strains of " Deutschland Uber 

1 Sproat, quoted by Hirn, The Origins of Art, 267. 



ART STIMULATES 165 

Alles," " Star-Spangled Banner " or the " Marseillaise, " 
civilized men have been whetted to deeds of violence. 

This stimulation, moreover, may do much to insure 
collective action. When such activity is essential, 
those phases of art are developed which make for inti- 
mate cooperation. Witness the canoe dances and boat- 
ing songs of insular people, the sowing songs and har- 
vest dances of agriculturists, and especially the choral 
songs so fully developed by warring people. Among the 
peaceful Hottentots every dancer is a law unto himself, 
but their more dominant neighbors, the Kaffirs, act in 
strict unison. The North American Indians move 
through their dances with soldier-like regularity, while 
the Maori warriors in their most furious movements main- 
tain uniformity and regularity, the slightest motions of 
their fingers being simultaneous and even their eyes 
all moving together. Rhythm, of course, has an aes- 
thetic value, but viewed historically this function has 
been far surpassed by utilitarian advantages; it facili- 
tates common action. 

Art in this way has a value for leaders long since recog- 
nized. Among savage tribes, when any task requiring 
combined effort is to be performed, a presul often 
demonstrates in dance or pantomime the sequence of 
movements required. 1 An Iroquois chief ambitious to 
lead a war party would draw the braves into a war dance 
and after rousing their passions in this way would set 
out before their ardor had time to cool. A Maorian 
with his followers executes a military pantomime which 
stimulates the warriors to fight and regulates their move- 
ments in battle, but more than this, as a European 
traveler has been compelled to admit, it " strikes terror 
into the heart of any man." In Australia even four or 
five mischievous old women with their chants, which 

1 Hirn, op. cit., 257. 



166 ART 

are accompanied by tears and groans, can soon work 
forty or fifty men into frenzy, fanatics ready for any deed 
of blood. 

ART AND THE EXECUTIVE 

This racial experience is something of which modern 
executives may avail themselves. The Sherwin-Wil- 
liams Co. coined a special title for their leading 
salesmen, " Top Notchers " ; whenever a meeting is 
called these top-notchers have a table or section apart 
from the others, their president quite correctly pointing 
out, " You may say this is childish, but then you know 
we are but children of the grown-up sort. ' ' Another com- 
pany calls its leading men " Record-Breakers. " When 
a certain mark has been exceeded, the salesman gets a 
medal in the shape of a watch fob ; if he breaks it a 
second time, he receives a bar to hang below the medal, 
and so on. Other alert managers have transformed 
prosaic sales reports into spirited " motor races," " base- 
ball games," " marathon runs," and like events, each 
man through pictures, diagrams, and averages shown 
in the house organs being inspired by his own, or prodded 
by his nearest competitor's " hits," " home runs," or 
" scores to date." 

Officers of the police and fire departments each year 
award medals, the mayor himself pinning the emblem 
upon the breast of its possessor in full view of " a dis- 
tinguished assemblage." Railroad executives bestow 
bands of gold braid which conductors wear upon the 
sleeve, each band signifying so many years of worthy 
service. 1 Y. M. C. A. " boosters " mark the progress 

1 The Erie Railroad has worked out a unique plan for similarly honor- 
ing its engineers. Its elements are these: First, the Order of the Red 
Spot, according to which any engineer distinguished for fine work has 
the number plate of his engine painted bright red. Several privileges, 
such as preferred runs, preferred attention at the division point, accrue 



EXECUTIVE AN ARTIST 167 

of their campaign contributions by a giant thermometer 
or a clock dial over which a huge hand moves from day 
to day, underneath each being a slogan " See it rise ! " 
or " Make it strike 12 ! " Carnegie, in his pitting plant 
against plant, provided for that furnace which held the 
record for lowest production cost an enormous broom. 
For the sake of having, this broom proudly displayed 
over their furnace, ironworkers blistered their hands 
and managers thought far into the night. Vanity of 
vanities, all is vanity, is no phrase for the executive. He 
accepts human nature as it is, and in no idle moment 
has devised songs and games and banners and emblems. 

In conveying information from one mind to another, 
art possesses a unique power. An artist or playwright 
with a few bold strokes, a vague hint here and there, 
produces a vivid picture. Yet this picture in reality 
is not his but rather the product of the imagination 
which he has stimulated and which, left to itself, is 
able to evolve briefest outlines into completeness. Now 
this same imaginative tendency in our nature, this possi- 
bility of vast increase through its functioning, serves 
the painter or playwright no less well than the executive. 
He, too, is an artist, albeit this fact he would be last to 
admit. 

In a dramatic way his message is impressed upon sub- 
ordinates and followers. When accused of drunken - 

to members of the Red Spot order. Second, a Roll of Honor is printed 
each month, in which appears a list of the most unusual and distinctive 
services rendered to the company by its men. Third, as a crowning 
tribute to its engineers, it was decided to allow to each man of long 
service and exceptional loyalty the privilege of having his own name, 
instead of the usual number, painted on the cab of his locomotive. The 
pride this inspires baffles description. Of the eighteen engineers thus 
far honored in this way, not one has ever varied once from the pinnacle 
of perfection since he was given his name on his cab. 

To this system is due in a measure the remarkable result accomplished 
by the Erie, the carrying of 225,000,000 people in the last eight years 
with only one fatality. 



1 68 ART 

ness, he admits, " I drink about as much as ," 

naming, " by permission," an eminent divine; and he 
follows this with a crushing vindication in the courts. 
It being rumored of another that his chief lieutenant 
is disaffected, he makes no labored reply ; they appear 
at the opera arm in arm. Or he rebukes followers, as 
Mohammed once stilled the clamor for spoils by sud- 
denly plucking a hair from the back of a camel and in 
raised voice saying, " By Allah ! I have never taken 
from the common spoil the value of that camel's hair 
more than my fifth ; and that fifth has always been ex- 
pended for your good." Or again he lampoons his 
opponent in doggerel, mean, undignified, no doubt, 
but strong because infectious. In a Broadway parade 
thousands once lustily sang : 

"Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, 
Continental liar from the state of Maine!" 

Here, too, is use for the image-stirring phrase, the " Lib- 
erty, Equality, and Fraternity," " Fifty-four forty or 
Fight," " Onward, Christian Soldiers," " Home Rule for 
Ireland," into which men at one time or another have 
read their intensest convictions. Such phrases, in fact 
all such means, are symbols ; yet as such they suffice, 
for the imagination works through them with a mini- 
mum of trouble and a maximum of output. 

The leader in reality furnishes merely an arc ; the 
followers build up the whole circle of his power. " It 
has frequently been noticed," says Cooley, 1 " that 
personal ascendancy is not necessarily dependent upon 
any palpable deed in which power is manifested, but that 
there is often a conviction of power and an expectation 
of success that go before the deed and control the minds 

1 Human Nature and Social Order, 295-296 passim. 



HIGH LIGHTS AND SHADINGS 169 

of men without apparent reason. There is something 
fascinating about this immediate and seemingly cause- 
less personal efficacy, [yet] it appears to be simply a 
matter of impulsive personal judgment, an impression 
of power and a sense of yielding due to interpretation 
of the visible or audible symbols of personality. An- 
other may impress us with his power, and so exercise 
authority over us, either by grossly performing the act, 
or by exhibiting traits of personality which convince 
our imaginations that he can and will do the act if he 
wishes to." And this latter, perhaps, is by far the more 
influential. It is this idea or image of him mirrored 
in the group consciousness and not what he himself 
necessarily is, which motivates followers, a fact empha- 
sized by the careers of Mohammed and Dowie and Napo- 
leon and, though to a less extent perhaps, unlimited 
numbers of leaders. 

Now through increasing and retaining this divergence 
between person and image, art performs another service ; 
it permits high lights and shadings. This " spot light 
and shadow " effect is of wide applicability. The skilled 
lawyer plays the spot light upon every element favorable 
to his case, trying to look most cheerful when hit hardest. 
The new improvements, the perfected organization, the 
broken records, executives push into the foreground. 
The chief place at the banquet, the carefully timed 
entrance to the platform, the open carriage preceded in 
the procession by gorgeous ranks, 1 what are these but 

1 Even savage chiefs are adept in the use of such means to retain 
ascendancy, as the following description written by two missionaries 
in Africa will illustrate : "The great monarch himself approached. He 
was heralded by some eighty individuals, each wearing a cap of monkey's 
skin adorned by a golden plate, and each holding his seat in his hand. 
Then came the dwarfs and buffoons in red flannel shirts, with the offi- 
cials of the harem ; there were also sixty boys, every one of whom wore 
a charm sewn up in leopard's skin, with written scraps from the Koran, 
which were highly prized; this train was followed by five tastefully 



170 ART 

spot light upon leader and shadows for followers ? Posi- 
tive and negative self-feeling are thus induced. 

Art in this way serves as a means of control. It tames 
the ego in flippant offender, raw recruit, awkward appren- 
tice, vainglorious lieutenant, and binds him to the 
organized will. As Mr. Spencer points out, " the earliest 
kind of government, the most general kind of govern- 
ment, and the government which is ever spontaneously 
recommencing, is the government of ceremonial obser- 
vance. [It] has ever had, and continues to have, the 
largest share in regulating men's lives/' * 

Hence the inaugural oath, the military salute, the 
state carriage, the throne, crown and scepter, the titles 
of nobility, the intricacies of court etiquette, the splen- 
dor of a Durbar. Similarly in law we retain the robe 
and wig, the grave demeanor, the prescribed penalties, 
the archaic language — the " Guilty or not guilty?" 
the " may God have mercy on your soul ! " Religion 
likewise is a museum of antiquity, its priestly robes, holy 
water, Latin service, crucifix, and candlesticks all point- 
ing to an age long past. 

Such obedience-getting means usually command slight 

carved royal chairs, hung round with gold and silver bells, but all black, 
being stained with the blood of human sacrifices. 

"Next, under an enormous silk sunshade, appeared the actual throne 
chair, encased with gold, and with long golden pipes carried behind it, 
as well as various wonderful vessels and articles of vertu. A peculiar 
music was heard rising above the sound of the horns and the beating of 
the drums. . . . 

"Still larger fans and umbrellas now approached, preceded by a corps 
of a hundred executioners dancing ; all wore leopard-skin caps, and had 
two knives slung from their necks. The dismal death drum, whose three 
beats were heard from time to time, closed the procession. 

"Now the music became wilder and louder, the ivory horns sounded 
shriller, the screaming and howling surpassed all description. Led by 
an attendant under a magnificent sunshade of black velvet, edged with 
gold and kept in constant motion, the royal potentate appeared." Ellis, 
Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, 258-259. 

1 Principles of Sociology, II, 3. 



ART MAY DEGENERATE 171 

respect in the upward climbing, the reforming tempera- 
ment, the men without sense of the past ; yet once them- 
selves in authority these radicals often reinstate the forms 
they heretofore sought to destroy. The explanation is 
simple ; efficacy adheres in them. " The reason why 
institutions of control are so full of survivals," says Ross, 
" is that such institutions work the better the older 
they grow, which is not true of a construction in syntax, 
a funeral service, a pattern of tool or garment. De- 
vices in the field of control, however crude at first, im- 
prove with age like wine. A duty enjoined in the old 
sacred books on the precept of an ancient sage binds us 
more than would the same if it came to us unhallowed by 
time. Crown and royal blood win for the Emperor 
Dom Pedro an obedience that his republican successors 
in Brazil can command only by military force." x 

ELEMENTS OF DECADENCE 

Art in the hands of a skilled stage manager is an effec- 
tive producer of impressions. It serves as a canopy under 
which the leader's real self may find cover, a scenery 
upon which followers may gaze. But through its 
possibility of making the outer do service for the inner, 
an element of decadence is introduced, the dry rot to 
be found underneath the follies of fashion, the eulogies 
pronounced over the bier of public swindler, the pur- 
chased sympathy of confessor, even the suavity of eti- 
quette. 

Such degeneracy is more than a moral question, how- 
ever; it seriously hinders effectiveness. Art readily 
passes over into the formalism which, substituting the 
outer for the inner, mistakes this outer as the end in 
itself and after a time if left unassailed glorifies the 

1 Soc. Psy., 273. Cf. his Social Control, 111-114, 190-194. 



172 ART 

cocoon in which the vital impulse is encased. Its 
possibilities are therefore as completely nullified as were 
the Grand Monarch's during the Ancient Regime. 
" The king," says Taine, 1 " suffers the same torture and 
the same inaction as he imposes. He also is playing a 
part ; all his steps and all his gestures have been deter- 
mined beforehand; he has been obliged to arrange his 
physiognomy and his voice, never to depart from an 
affable and dignified air, to award judiciously his glances 
and his nods, to keep silent or to speak only of the chase, 
and to suppress his own thoughts, if he has any. One 
cannot indulge in revery, meditate or be absent-minded 
when one is before the footlights ; the part must have 
due attention. . . . 

" Strictly speaking it is the life of an actor who is on 
the stage the entire day. To support this load, and work 
besides, required the temperament of Louis XIV, the 
vigor of his body, the extraordinary firmness of his 
nerves, the strength of his digestion, and the regularity 
of his habits ; his successors who came after him grow 
weary or stagger under the same load. But they cannot 
throw it off ; an incessant, daily performance is insep- 
arable from their position and it is imposed on them 
like a heavy, gilded, ceremonial coat. . . . Verily, 
the king resembles an oak stifled by the innumerable 
creepers which, from top to bottom, cling to its trunk." 
Art the servant had become formalism the despotic 
master. And to present executives as with Louis this 
possibility is never absent. 

EXERCISES 

i. Discuss : "It has been the misfortune of the present admin- 
istration that its mistakes have been more spectacular than its 
accomplishments." 

1 The Ancient Regime, 104-109 passim. 



EXERCISES AND READINGS 173 

2. Why is it that a joke is often worth two arguments? 

3. Explain how a formalized sympathy, even hypocrisy, 
tends to develop in ministers. {Atlantic Monthly, April, 1913, 

S73-) 

4. Why do Americans, especially business men, underrate the 
power of emblems, ceremonies, music, etc.? 

5. Over which has art more power, Latin or Teuton? Of what 
significance to plant managers ? 

6. How can a manager show graphically the accomplishment 
of the various members of his staff? 

READINGS 

Ross, Social Control, Chs. XIX-XX. 



CHAPTER XV 
Illusion 

"The only real measure of the social importance of an idea is 
the influence it exerts on men's minds. The degree of truth or 
error it contains is only of interest from a philosophic point of 
view." — Gustave Le Bon. 

In the management of men there are those whose sole 
test of a measure is, " Does it work? " And to make 
more certain that it does, they concern themselves with 
the line between fact and fable, which, at best, is faint. 
Under deft manipulation the senses are obsessed by the 
shifting mirage and the judgment is tricked of its right- 
ful conclusion. Possibly not for always, since truth, with 
men all scientists in some distant age, may possibly 
become full orbed, but meanwhile, at least, the will- 
o'-the-wisp, magic, and the hidden wire. The intriguer 
has his day. 

Deception, in fact, predated civilization. It is found 
even among the lower animals, as persons familiar with 
horses or dogs have probably discovered. Herr Groos 
tells the amusing story of a pointer who shammed sleep 
after he had stealthily licked all the clabber out of a 
bowl ; also of a monkey caught when about to rob a hen's 
nest, who thereupon tried to look very artless. 1 Dogs 
and monkeys, in turn, are far surpassed in guile by the 
" simple " savage. The nimble intellect early vied with 
the strong arm as a means of control. The old, the ab- 
normal, the maimed and the blind, by magic incanta- 

1 Play of Man, 297-299. 
174 



ILLUSION UNIVERSAL 175 

tions, spirit visitations, swoons and trances, sought to 
justify their right to be. 

It remained for later ages, however, to render illusion 
a fine art. The splendid art of diplomacy refines some- 
what the crude art of lying. The ablest diplomat whom 
Great Britain ever sent us is termed " quiet, altogether 
British and unfathomable." Much history has been 
made by men such as he. George III by a certain persis- 
tent astuteness, by the dexterous utilizing of political 
rivalries, by cajoling some men and betraying others, 
by a resolute adroitness in turning every opening to his 
own advantage, built up his own power while steadily 
outwitting his opponents. " Never," declared Pitt after 
one encounter, " never has he so baffled me." * 

His counterpart has flitted across the scenes at Vienna, 
at Berlin, at Madrid, in the councils at St. Peterburg and 
the solemn conclaves of Rome ; Europe has known Bis- 
marck and Metternich, the De Medici, and Richelieu. 
In our own country a " little magician " once maneu- 
vered himself across the slippery arena of Washington 
politics up to the first place, and others, though perhaps 
less adept, still thus advance themselves part way. Of 
course the demand now is, let there be light. But 
" rings " and cliques with their " bosses " and " dough 
bags " still persist, and as the plowshare of publicity 
scratches the surface the wires are deeper laid. 

Be not too absorbed, however, over the politicians. 
In what organization, be it business, church, or reformers' 
club, has plain dealing ever approached the one hundred 
per cent mark ? Illusion is a universal coloration process, 
and of its ramifications there is no end. In surveying 
this activity one may discern certain typical methods 
through which it operates ; to a consideration of the more 
important of these we now turn. 

1 Rosebery, Life of William Pitt, 13. 



176 ILLUSION 

TYPES OF ILLUSION 

i. The Shifting of Attention. — Not what is, but that 
to which the mind attends — this constitutes reality 
from the view of motivation. And this fact shrewd 
manipulators have recognized. They keep the atten- 
tion fastened upon that which it is their interest to have 
seen. 

A splendid exterior may so draw the eye that the in- 
terior is freed from scrutiny. 1 Log cabin and hard 
cider pleased the backwoodsmen. What matter if 
"Old Tip" knew not the tariff? The "American 
System " had nothing peculiarly American about it, but 
the name was adroitly chosen and served its purpose. 
The " old hero " as a St. George killing the dragon or 
an invincible champion of the sacred destinies of the 
American people, driving out " Old Nick's money " 
and " Clay's rags," in his war against the " monster 
monopoly " exercised a wonderful charm over the 
popular imagination. To the gravest arguments and 
remonstrances, the answer was, literally, " Hurrah for 
Jackson ! " 

A great cause, especially a divine cause, has a prestige 
all its own. But every great cause is besieged by self- 
seeking " supporters," foul hands making capital of 
fair duties. And convenient it is for such as these to 
confuse the distinction — one ought to say, contrast 
— between cause and self. Personal enemies readily be- 
come " plotters against our house," " traducers of our 

1 "An immigrant in Pennsylvania set himself up in the banking busi- 
ness, but it was some time before he got the money of his countrymen for 
safe keeping. He secured their confidence by buying a large safe, which 
he placed in his store, near the front window, so that the passers-by 
could see it. The money soon began to pour in, not because he was an 
honest man, but because he had a big safe in which to keep it." Roberts, 
New Immigration, 181. 



CONFUSING THE ATTENTION 177 

fair city," or " blasphemers of our God." Individual 
orders are merely the rules of the house, the demands of 
patriotism, the will of the people, perhaps, the solemn 
mandates of Jehovah plainly expressed in the Scriptures. 
To such lofty motives as home, loyalty, patriotism, and 
worship, men's minds are always attuned, and hence 
opportunity is never lacking this wearer of the mask. 

Too great eagerness to push oneself forward implies 
selfishness and brings reproof. Hence a leader places 
himself " in the hands of his friends." In a seemingly 
receptive manner merely, he awaits the call of duty. " I 
am no politician," were the often-expressed words of 
Andrew Jackson. But he had William B. Lewis for a 
friend, Lewis, the great father of the wire-pullers, skilled 
in the art of starting movements apparently spontaneous, 
at a distance, and in a quarter from which they win pres- 
tige and popularity; skilled also in planning the stage 
setting, adjusting the roles, giving cues, and drilling 
each player faithfully in his part; wonderfully patient 
and pliant, yet energetic in moving the drama toward 
the denouement when the chief actor comes to the foot- 
lights and bows to the will of the people. 1 Worthy com- 
patriots all of the Australian boomerang thrower ! 

Defeat implies weakness. But shall followers be 
permitted to gaze long upon evidences of disaster ? The 
defeated politician immediately after the votes are 
counted flays ringster control, arraigns the sordid 
interests, vows eternal devotion to the people, all with 
delightful inconsistency. The priest points proudly to 
the armor of those whose lives by power of prayer were 
saved from shipwreck. Only a cynic raises the query, 
Where is the armor of those who prayed and yet were 
drowned ? Napoleon entranced the French with visions 
of military glory; mothers bereft of their soldier sons 
1 Sumner, Andrew Jackson, 77-78. 



178 ILLUSION 

mourned within the home as was proper, while in public 
places were displayed the captured standards of Austria 
or of Prussia — " Vive la France ! Vive l'empereur ! " 
The Roman emperors to offset each fresh disaster set 
up new grandeurs toward which they bade the populace 
look. 1 

When success is doubtful or himself distasteful, it is 
not well that one should sit upon the throne ; a puppet 
may play the part. A slip, a reverse, the puppet only 
is sacrificed. Again, should results be ample, there is 
much said of " solid achievements." If results be 
lacking, efforts are emphasized ; " the noblest duty is 
to strive." And if both are wanting, he is still " such a 
good man." 

During schoolboy days, the trickster suggests, " See 
that little bird ! " — upon which we lose an apple, a 
marble, or some such thing. With the passing of boy- 
hood, this crude device gives way to cleverest manipu- 
lation, yet now, as then, efficacy adheres in that idea 
interesting enough to dominate consciousness. 

2. Errors Regarding Causation. — It does not suffice 
merely to distract attention; illusion also shapes the 
interpretation of what is seen. It deftly combats the 
evidence of one's senses, twists far out of line the normal 
sequences of thought, and causes men to look askance 

1 "After great fires and desolating wars," says Dill, "the first thought 
of the most frugal or the most lavish prince was to restore in greater 
grandeur what had been destroyed. After the great conflagration of 
64 a.d., which laid in ashes ten out of the fourteen regions of Rome, Nero 
immediately set to work to rebuild the city in a more orderly fashion, 
with broader streets and open spaces. Vespasian, on his accession, 
found the treasury loaded with a debt of more than a billion and a half 
dollars. Yet the frugal emperor did not hesitate to begin at once the 
restoration of the Capitol, and all the other ruins left by the great struggle 
of 69 a.d. from which his dynasty arose. . . . Titus completed the 
Colosseum, and erected the famous baths. Domitian once more re- 
stored the Capitol and added many new buildings." Roman Society 
from Nero to Marcus Aurclius, 227, cited by Ross, Soc. Psy., 34. 



THE BEFUDDLEMENT OF REASON 179 

at simplicity itself. In this befuddlement of reason 
much is accomplished by certain convenient theories of 
causation. 

Nothing is more clear than that increased danger 
swells the chances of death. Mohammed theorized to 
the contrary; every event, according to the Koran, 
was predestined from eternity and could in no wise be 
avoided. No man could die until his alotted hour was 
at hand and die then he must, whether a sneaking coward 
at home or amid the storm of battle a valiant defender 
of the faith. Islamism forgot meekness and philan- 
thropy, and became a religion of violence and the sword. 
Common sense was routed by predestination. 

Politics, crises, and climate are not perhaps one and 
the same thing. Yet every four years we learn that 
hard times, closed factories, bankruptcy, and soup kitch- 
ens are inevitable with Democrats in power; that, 
contrariwise, the winds are balmy, the crops good, the 
sun shining on a happy land and prosperous people when 
a Republican sits in the White House. 'Tis a witching 
argument — with perhaps a bit of truth in it. 

The danger argument is another one artfully employed. 
The insurance solicitor convinces the prospect that he is 
not long for this world, and then gets a doctor's cer- 
tificate to prove to the company that he is. " Friends 
and Fellow-citizens/' so ran the presidential candi- 
date's last reminder to the voters, " we stand face to 
face with a great decision, a decision which will affect 
the whole course of our National life and our individual 
fortunes throughout the next generation. It cannot 
be postponed." Says the promoter, " This is your last 
chance " ; and he solemnly quotes a certain verse from 
Shakespeare. 

Division of labor involves specialization, with supe- 
riority possible only within a restricted field. But, as 



180 ILLUSION 

has been pointed out, ascendancy is seldom confined to 
this restricted field but envelops the leader as a whole. 
We admire not merely Emerson's thought, but his style, 
his face, his house ; in fact, everything connected with 
him is ennobled. In this tendency lurks another ele- 
ment of illusion. The successful warrior is elevated to 
the presidency ; the eminent chemist creates a pro- 
found impression by his religious views ; the words of a 
Croesus are final concerning art treasures and church 
service; the moral enthusiast holds the masses spell- 
bound by his clear division of mankind into plutocrats 
and plain people or by his deep-chested opinion on our 
currency laws. 

The primitive medicine man readily threw the levers 
of causation. He made rain to fall, detected plots, 
appeased evil spirits, and easily interpreted both his 
success and his failure. And the course of his descend- 
ants is not yet run. 

3. The Distortion of Values. — Illusion penetrates 
even deeper into the mental life ; it shapes the symbols 
with which the mind has to deal. These symbols in their 
normal condition represent the winnowings of the ages, 
the economic, juridical, political, aesthetic, religious, 
scientific and ethical valuations possessed of which and 
obedient to which the favored groups have triumphed 
in the long struggle for existence, the standards through 
which all human experience continues to be measured, 
the coin, so to speak, by which society's business is 
transacted. Havoc is visited upon these values, when 
the solicitor emphasizes insurance ; the physician, health ; 
the minister, salvation ; the old men, conservation ; the 
young men, progress; the politician, himself and his 
mission. The special pleader in every case would distort 
current values, and thereupon play the game with leaded 
dice. 



DEMAGOGUES 181 

It may perchance be that the popular side is not in- 
variably the right. But vox populi, vox dei, demagogues 
and other self-seekers pose as ministering angels obeying 
the divine voice. In this case the flattered divinities 
usually are mere parrots, and plucked birds at that. A 
like error persists in the goodness view, the mischievous 
fallacy that a " good " man can do no evil. The igno- 
rant alderman voting on a ninety-nine year franchise, 
the old family physician dictating sanitary regulations 
for the slums, the tax collector with hopelessly muddled 
books, the train dispatcher erratic though a member of 
the church choir, these may perpetuate their iniquity 
long after the highwayman and gangster have been 
jailed. They meant well ! So does the ward politician, 
the " boss " denounced as mercenary, immoral, a vulture, 
a leech, but who in fact moves among his constituents as 
a kindly friend, getting jobs for the unemployed, provid- 
ing bail, shoes, turkeys at Thanksgiving and baskets at 
Christmas, attending weddings and church bazaars 
where his purse is always open and the question of 
tainted money is never raised. A good man indeed, 
popular, charming in his smile and his benevolences 
— but we pay his bills. 

Obedience has a true value, yet skillfully manipulated 
it means to do as one is told. "It is a real pleasure for 
me to greet so many of my Italian friends," a recent 
gubernatorial candidate assured his audience; then the 
slantwise suggestion, " I know they are my friends, 
because they always vote for me on Election Day, and 
that is the real test of their confidence." Similarly says 
the Talmud, " He who humiliates himself will be lifted 
up; he who raises himself will be humiliated." The 
soul of the ancient Egyptian in the Book of the Dead 
pleads, " I am not swollen with pride." In the Koran 
one is admonished, " God loves not him who is proud 



182 ILLUSION 

and boastful." Such tools, carefully forged, embedded 
in holy writ, deceivers itch to use ; " Keep an ear open 
for God's commands " too often means " Listen to me." 

The evidence of the senses fails us in the presence of 
the unseen ; accordingly, around its mysteries, its hopes 
and fears, distortion reaches the climax. Under its touch 
the future is not gray but white or black, a thing of rap- 
ture or terror. " A drop of blood shed in the cause of 
God," says Mohammed, " is of more avail than two 
months of fasting and prayer; whoso falls in battle, 
all his sins are forgiven; at the day of judgment his 
wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion and odoriferous 
as musk." And, " Thank God," said a pioneer preacher, 1 
" the day is not far distant when you miserable and 
unrepentant sinners will be chained down to Hell's 
brazen floor, and the devil with his three-pronged har- 
poon will pierce your reeking hearts, and pile upon you 
the red hot cinders of black damnation as high as the 
pyramids of Egypt, and fry the pride out of your hearts 
to grease the gudgeons of the ragwheels of Hell." The 
contrast between these two selections is noticeable. 
Both brought results. 

The present, so the prosaic economist tells us, dis- 
counts the future. But a lively image hath its own 
effect, and the future is still afar off. 



THE THEORY OF ILLUSION 

How account for the widely extended scope of illusion 
and its tremendous influence? In the source of the 
mind's materials is revealed one explanation. Accord- 
ing to the general law of perception, of that which domi- 
nates consciousness, part has come through the senses 

1 Maxwell, History of Randolph County, W. Va., 315. 



ILLUSION EXPLAINED 183 

while another part, possibly the larger, is self -supplied . * In 
this self-supplied mental store lie fruitful causes of illusion. 

For illusion is attractive. It appeals. The facts may 
indicate stony roads and hot sun and the parched tongue ; 
but illusion paints the lotus tree, the cool spring, the 
rewards, and if at first its picture is not pleasing, it may 
readily be made so. Consciousness finds such images 
lively, entertaining, satisfying. And the mind deals 
only with the materials it possesses. 

Now, contrary to what may appear at first to be true, 
belief is natural and thoroughgoing, while skepticism is 
a thin veneer laid on in fear and trembling. The primi- 
tive tendency, from which we are all only more or less 
removed, is to believe everything conceived ; in fact, 
doubt is the really difficult mental state. Says James : 2 
" The greatest proof that a man is sui compos is his 
ability to suspend belief in presence of an emotionally 
exciting idea. To give this power is the highest result 
of education. In untutored minds it does not exist. 
Every exciting thought in the natural man carries credence 
with it. . . . Whichever represented objects give us 
sensations, especially interesting ones, or incite our motor 
impulses, or arouse our hate, desire, or fear, are real 
enough for us. Our requirements in the way of reality 
terminate in our acts and emotions, our own pleasures 
and pains. These are the ultimate fixities from which 
the whole chain of our belief depends." Credulity, even 
after many painful experiences, continues to rule whole 
segments of the mental life. 

Error follows hard upon credulity. It could scarce 
be otherwise, since truth is reached only by fitting 
materials harmoniously together, a process of synthesis 
in which elements are arranged in proper sequence. 
The chances for a misfit are numberless. The savage 

1 James, Prin. of Psy., II, 103. 2 Ibid., 308-311 passim. 



184 ILLUSION 

wonder worker notes that after he tramped around a 
certain stake, with many passes of a wand and continu- 
ous mutterings, a rain fell. He connects these two sets 
of phenomena. When a rain is again desired, he sets 
into operation the " causes," and after a time behold, 
the shower falls. His magic has worked. The error 
here results from his having connected two things in 
reality unrelated, a misfit in thought mechanism. And 
this is precisely what whole masses of men have done and 
are doing all the time. Error flourishes. In greater or 
less degree it claims every person in even the most 
enlightened countries, perpetuates superstitions, false 
conceits, prejudices, makes intellectual cowards of us 
all. And yet from such minds, however error laden at 
times they be, comes the guidance that we have. 

The only real antidote to error is truth. Now truth 
is not given to men in their sleep, but, even under the most 
favorable circumstances, must be won through much 
patient toil and disinterested devotion. Its progress, 
consequently, is subject to human control. Those whose 
case rests upon error have well recognized this, and 
under their direction have multiplied the most ingenious 
methods of opposition. 

Ceremonialism is one of these. It deftly forestalls 
complete knowledge by curbing overfamiliarity and 
keeping others at a distance. 1 " Every one sees what 

1 Very adroitly the savage wonder worker shrouds himself in mystery. 
Says Ellis; "Until recently his face might not be seen, even by his own 
subjects, and if circumstances obliged him to communicate with them, 
he did so through a screen which concealed him from view. Now, al- 
though his face may be seen, it is usual to conceal his body; and at 
audiences a cloth is held before him so as to hide him from his neck 
downwards, and is raised so as to cover him altogether whenever he 
coughs, sneezes, expectorates, or takes snuff. The face is partially 
concealed by the conical cap with hanging strings of beads. It is death 
for anyone, except members of the court, to sit or stand behind the 
Awnjale." Op. cit., 70. Cf. Ross, Soc. Con., 240. 



TRUTH AND ERROR 185 

you appear to be," remarked Machiavelli, " few really 
know who you are." " Among a man's peers," says Ba- 
con, " a man shall be sure of familiarity ; and therefore 
it is good a little to keep state." This keeping state 
ranges from mere impressive personal demeanor to the 
elaborateness of the Ancient Regime. No man is said 
to be a hero to his valet, but most followers by a wide 
margin are denied such intimacy. 

Even those who come to know their chief best may 
increase, rather than diminish, the illusion. A wide 
divergence, as was pointed out in connection with the 
goodness fallacy, often exists between standards set by 
the individual in private life and those he applies to his 
public acts. The black-frocked man kindly patting the 
little girls' heads in Sabbath school perchance was yes- 
terday a secret rebater and to-morrow will water stock. 
The grafting district leader, pictured in the cartoons as 
having horns, is found upon acquaintance to be mild 
mannered, of fond heart and friendly purse. Their 
crimes are social, not personal ; it is crookedness on the 
large. Yet their friends are willing, even zealous, bearers 
of colored bulletins. 

A very workable opposition to truth is the emphasis 
upon the danger encountered. The old paths indeed 
are pleasant. Over them have our ancestors walked; 
with every turn and roadside spring, habit has long ac- 
quainted us ; and have not lusty runners at times for- 
saken its well-worn surface only to return defeated and, 
as they trudge in our midst once more, tormented by 
self-alienation ? At some time in his career, due, perhaps, 
to misfortune, learning ill wrought out, or fatigue, every 
man under stress is as tinder to the council emanating 
from many a crafty breast, " Knowledge is merely a 
proud conceit, quite useless. Believe. Trouble not 
thyself, leave all to me." 



i86 ILLUSION 

This suggestion, if need be, is followed by active sup- 
pression. The discoverers of truth have been hounded, 
thrown into prison, as was Galileo ; vehemently abused, 
as was Darwin ; prevented from publishing his writings, 
as was Descartes in his Traite de Monde; their works 
prohibited even though published, as is done by the 
papal Index Librorum, which catalogues most of our great 
or epoch-making books ; worst of all, themselves, thinkers 
untold, — and necessarily unknown too, — deterred from 
investigation which would have brought us long since 
to the plane toward which we now toil. A vast sacri- 
fice that error might persist ! 

Nevertheless, bigotry and insincerity are practically 
everywhere considered a scar in character. The double- 
dealer tends to radiate doubt, distrust ; surely no rally- 
ing standard. Some additional element evidently must 
enter in to explain why illusion has long played a part 
on the checkered stage of actuality, and its curtain is 
not yet rung down. This element is found in its close 
relation with belief. The shrewd plotter, the knave or 
strike breaker or street agitator, the promulgator of 
mining scheme or fantastic futures, detached at first, a 
mere manipulator, in the end embraces the same lively 
image that enticed followers. " We must only in cold 
blood act as if the thing in question were real" says James, 
" and keep acting as if it were real, and it will infallibly 
end by growing into such a connection with our life that 
it will become real." Illusion thus comes to envelop 
leader as well as followers ; he, too, is more or less duped. 

EXERCISES 

i. Is there more pleasure in realization than in anticipation? 

2. Name some current superstitions. May one be influenced 
by beliefs which, if criticized, he openly repudiates? 

3. Is any one consistently sober and rational? 



EXERCISES AND READINGS 187 

4. Which is more readily taken by phrases and formulae, 
philosophic and theological speculations, — the Latin or the 
Teuton? Urban dweller or rural dweller? 

5. Compare in openness of countenance primary and high 
school pupils. Agricultural and law school students. 

6. By what methods do men seek to make themselves more 
impressive? 

7. What elements of illusion in the censorship of war news? 

READINGS 

Roosevelt, Autobiography, Ch. Ill (Outlook, April 26, 1912,917- 

941). 
Machiavelli, The Prince, Chs. XV-XIX. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Discipline 

"I doubt much whether the power of particular persons over 
their neighbors has ever in any age of the world been so well 
defined and so easily and safely exerted as it is at present." 

— J. F. Stephen. 

In the binding of many to the will of one, no method 
historically has been more employed than discipline. 
A double-lashed whip, its smart has followed hard upon 
sins both of commission and omission. And though 
closet philosophers say much of moral suasion, in the 
stern realm of fact there is still need for the iron grip 
inside the velvet glove. 

THE BASES OF AUTHORITY 

i 

The executive usually finds that handling discipline 
is much like playing with fire; the method possesses 
efficacy but is dangerous. Being guided by the proper 
point of view will largely obviate this danger and in- 
crease the control ; and this point of view, in turn, is 
best gained through considering, in connection with 
each case as it arises, the bases of authority. 

The most general statement perhaps is that obedience 
varies directly according to the degree of positive self- 
fccting of leader in relation to the negative self -feeling of 
follower. In the chapters on personality, imitation, 
and suggestion, the significance of prestige was pointed 

1 88 



AUTHORITY PRESTIGE 189 

out. In a very real sense, and related to these others, 
we may speak of authority prestige. 

Napoleon possessed it. An obscure general, — in the 
opinion of his seasoned staff officers a mere little upstart 
dispatched them from Paris, — upon taking command of 
the army in Italy he appeared at headquarters girt with 
his sword, explained the measures he had taken, gave 
his orders,- dismissed the staff ; by his mere presence he 
vanquished the rough generals, one of whom, Augereau, 
admitted outside that this little devil of a general had 
inspired him with awe. 

John Wesley " could overawe a mob with the still 
and searching look of his eye. Even his friends some- 
times stood in a certain awe of him, and seldom ven- 
tured to oppose his wishes." Of Parnell it is said, " He 
would give a stern straight look from those strange eyes 
of his, and I have seen even bold men shrivel under the 
gaze." 

Thus does natural prestige secure obedience, yet 
prestige in all its forms works toward the same end. 1 
Personality, impressive demeanor, exalted position, a 
series of successes, close touch with the unseen, the 
splendors of a coronation or a Delhi Durbar, each 
enables him who commands to cast a certain spell over 
those who obey. In combination their power is well- 
nigh invincible. 

This, however, is but one phase of the matter. With 

*A curious instance is the native "captain" appointed in each dis- 
trict of Guiana by the colonial government. "From that day," says 
Thurm, "wherever he goes, he carries with him his certificate, a most 
potent and mysterious document to the Indians, and a huge staff of letter- 
wood, as signs of authority. His power is strangely real, considering 
that to enforce it he has to depend but on his own influence, on a sheet 
of paper, and a stick such as every Indian might cut for himself. The 
document is far the most dreaded of his insignia. His orders to any 
Indians of his district are almost unhesitatingly obeyed." Among the 
Indians of Guiana, 212. 



igo DISCIPLINE 

the evolving of leader prestige, there has gone on in 
followers' minds a development of their own negative 
self-feeling. The two aspects are complementary. 
This tendency in followers to admit inferiority is uni- 
versal. It appears to be closely correlated with the 
gregarious instinct and perhaps is definitely impressed 
during the period of tutelage under parents; at least 
it is a necessary concomitant to collective effort. 1 

In consequence, large numbers of men, a considerable 
majority perhaps, find satisfaction in humility, lack of 
responsibility, and obedience. The native Australians, 
because he did not use his gun against them, came to 
despise Lumholtz as a small white man. The rich 
landlord, collecting his rents with severity, Miss Addams 
found, was nevertheless greatly admired by the slum 
dwellers, though the poor landlord, he who pitied and 
spared, was treated with a certain lack of respect. The 
President during visitors' days hears over and over 
again the fervent " God bless you ! " Says Wilson, 
" Up from the common soil, up from the quiet heart of 
the people, rise the streams of hope and eulogy. ,, 

This is no enlightened selfishness, but devotion, willing 
service that continues though sorely tried. The Ancient 
Regime at Versailles ground the masses into misery, 
yet the inhabitants of town after town willingly and 
joyfully raised statues and various monuments in honor 
of Louis XIV and his victories, and not all the infamies 
of Louis XV could shake the devotion of the masses 
to his welfare. Michelet relates, " When it was known 
in Paris that Louis XV, who had left for the army, was 
detained ill at Metz, it was night. People got up and 
ran tumultuously hither and thither without knowing 
where they were going; the churches were opened in 
the middle of the night . . . people assembled at every 

1 Cf. 101-103. 



OPEN AND CLOSED RESOURCES 191 

cross-road, jostling and questioning one another without 
knowing what they were after. In several churches, the 
priest who was reciting the prayer for the king's health 
was stopped by his tears, and the people replied by 
sobs and cries. The courier who brought the news of 
his convalescence was embraced and almost stifled ; 
people kissed his horse, and led him in triumph. Every 
street resounded with a cry of joy : ' The king is healed ! ' " 1 
And this was for Louis XV ! 

The difference between positive self-feeling in leader 
and negative self-feeling in follower lies at the heart of 
authority. The power does not consist in things, but 
is spiritual, intangible. " Mutiny Acts," says George 
Bernard Shaw, " are needed only by officers who com- 
mand without authority. Divine right needs no whip." 

Turning now to the second general statement in general 
related to the first, we may say, that disciplinary power 
varies indirectly with the degree of independence of the 
subject. Here we have at bottom the question of open 
or closed resources, a matter of vast historical signifi- 
cance. When resources are open, by his own effort 
at first hand, a man may subsist. To cause him to for- 
sake these opportunities and labor for a master requires 
slavery, the personal possession of one by another. No 
other plan suffices. For if every man in his own right 
had access to resources, were he not possessed each 
would serve his own interests. 

But when resources are closed, escape is cut off. 
Industrially, the capitalist has the funds, the landlord 
has the lands. The compulsion which once resided in 
gang driver and bloodhounds now adheres in the social 
system. Accordingly, followers are no longer possessed 
nor bound in body, simply because such precautions are 
needless. To most men the boasted independence often 

1 Le Bon, Psychology of Revolution, 146. 



i 9 2 DISCIPLINE 

heard mentioned, if analyzed, usually means freedom to 
starve. The executive may therefore rest secure; the 
unruly are dashed to their own destruction, the others, 
tamed into faithfulness, are crowded toward him. 1 

Obedience getters, instead of aiming at the recalci- 
trant directly, have often adroitly set about closing his 
resources. The only road to royal favor under Louis 
XIV was attendance at Versailles. Says Taine : 2 
" To be present was an obligation ; it might be called a 
continuation of ancient feudal homage; the staff of 
nobles is maintained as the retinue of its born general. 
In the language of the day, it is called ' paying one's 
duty to the king.' Absence, in the sovereign's eyes, 
would be a sign of independence as well as indifference, 
while submission as well as assiduity is his due. The 
eyes of Louis XIV go their rounds at every moment, 
1 on arising or retiring, on passing into his apartments, 
in his gardens, . . . nobody escapes, even those who 
hoped they were not seen ; it was a demerit with some, 
and the most distinguished, not to make the court their 
ordinary sojourn, to others to come to it but seldom, 
and certain disgrace to those who never, or nearly never, 
came.' Henceforth, the main thing, for the first per- 
sonages in the kingdom, men and women, ecclesiastics 
and laymen, the grand affair, the first duty in life, the 
true occupation, is to be at all hours and in every place 

^'When in Berwick, Pa., conversing with the employment agent, 
we saw foreigners waiting around that office all day. VVe expressed sur- 
prise at seeing them there hour after hour, morning and afternoon, 
but the employment agent said: 'That's the way the foreigner does; 
tell him you don't want him in the morning, yet he'll hang around all 
day and show himself. An American will come to the window in the 
morning and, if refused work, he goes away immediately and you don't 
see him again until the following morning, when he does the same thing.' 
I Hiring the winter 1907-1908 troops of foreigners hung around industrial 
plants, waiting the call of the employer; no matter what hour he called, 
they were there to answer." Roberts, New Immigration, 293. 

2 The Ancient Rigitne, 100-102 passim. 



SECURING OBEDIENCE 193 

under the king's eye, within reach of his voice and his 
glance." 

Said La Bruyere, " Whoever considers that the king's 
countenance is the courtier's supreme felicity, that he 
passes his life looking on it and within sight of it, will 
comprehend to some extent how to see God, constitutes 
the glory and happiness of the saints." Declared Due 
de Richelieu, " I would rather die than pass two months 
without seeing him." 

George III, similarly surrounding himself with peers 
yearning for lieutenancies or regiments, for stars or 
strawberry leaves; with prelates and numberless servi- 
tors whose convictions were unequal to their appetites, 
had merely to whisper his august disapprobation — 
apparently stiff necks were suddenly flaccid and joints 
became as water. 

Cortes destroyed the ships upon which his soldiers 
might retreat from Mexico, a very literal means of 
closing resources ; Bismarck guided authority into his 
own hands by ruling that no subordinate should com- 
municate with the king except through himself ; Robes- 
pierre so played the shadow of the guillotine upon his 
colleagues on the Committee of Public Safety that one 
glance from the master brought pallor and despair. It 
is easy to discipline, as these men have shown, when 
one possesses the strangle hold. 

In a more real sense, however, control is not exer- 
cised over the corporeal self or material fortunes so much 
as over the social self. Ever comes the question, How 
sit we in the estimation of our fellows? Savages live 
in superstitious dread of the person who possesses their 
names ; but so are civilized men sensitive to what is 
done to their fair name, i.e. the reflection of themselves 
in the minds of others. Ridicule, disdain, contempt, 
exposure, all threaten to eclipse the social image. 



i 9 4 DISCIPLINE 

But the most subtle form of closed resources hinges 
upon faith in the unseen. A priestly class claims to 
hold the keys of heaven and hell, and all avenues thereto. 
It alone can define orthodoxy, provide forms of worship, 
administer sacraments, offer prayer for departed souls, 
and procure forgiveness of sins, a series of opportuni- 
ties for control and exploitation which have been 
employed with adroitness for more than a thousand 
years. 

These two bases of authority, the degrees of self-feeling 
and independence held by executive and subordinate in 
relation to each other, may seem far removed from shop 
or office friction. In reality each case of control rests 
upon these principles, and no discipline is effective not 
in accord with them. To apply them, however, one 
may well consider certain more specific policies as per 
the following discussion. 

EFFECTIVENESS IN DISCIPLINE 

Among subordinates are always those insistent upon 
freedom, and more or less restive under restraint, these 
often being, too, it may be added, the most valuable 
members of the organization. Hence the very practical 
question arises, How to make a minimum of compulsion 
secure the ends desired. We may now survey the means 
through which this is realized. 

i. The Gradation of Penalties. — This involves first 
the certainty of guilt. And this in turn means the elimi- 
nation of guesswork, the substitution of adequate in- 
formation-getting agencies. The Harriman lines check 
their local agents by a press-clipping bureau, in which 
the real sources of complaint are traced out. In other 
companies the watchful executive eye is supplemented 
by checkers, inspectors, complaint bureaus, detectives, 



ADMINISTERING PUNISHMENT 195 

occasionally an investigation, and by minor officials, 
each of whom in turn is responsible for certain subor- 
dinates. The facts must first be known. 

Definiteness of punishment should follow hard upon 
certainty of guilt. In theory, of course, all will agree 
that punishment is for the offender; yet resentment 
rises when wrong is discovered and not necessarily when 
the wrongdoer is present. The day when the congre- 
gation is sparse normally calls forth the scolding sermon 
on lax church attendance, however contrary to principle 
this may be. Execrations in the counting house do not 
reach the defaulting cashier in Canada, nor do rogues 
more than smile at blind rage. Let the vials of wrath, 
if used, be employed with specific intent. The evildoer 
is liable to be thick-skinned; only concentrated acid 
will burn. 

Full measure, too, is required for the glaring offense. 
He who would successfully rule a turbulent country 
should not hate blood. Essentially a non-fighting man, 
Madero employed no rigorous means, even with his 
bitterest enemies. Reyes and Felix Diaz both fell into 
his hands after starting revolutions against him, and 
neither was put to death, as his friends demanded, but 
lived to plot against him again. So mild was Henry IV 
that the princes and nobles of France saw in rebellion 
a game in which there was much to gain and little to 
lose. Mazzini's easy tolerance, while it secured good 
behavior in general, was flaunted by the rougher elements 
in Rome. Now it is for these worst that punishment is 
especially designed. Restraint is the end sought, be the 
means to secure it severe or mild. 

The disciplinarian, accordingly, should select from a 
wide array of weapons that which serves best in each 
particular case. There are the rack and pinion, guillo- 
tine, noose, dungeon, and kindred instruments of torture 



i 9 6 DISCIPLINE 

able to crush out life itself. 1 There are the fine, the 
suspension, the discharge, all wielded in their direct 
form by the average employer; scarcely less so by 
men such as Andrew Jackson, who once saw to it that 
of the twenty-three Tennessee legislators voting against 
him twenty were not retained to office, an object lesson 
not soon to be forgotten ; and who as President cleaned 
the public service of every nefarious Adams adherent ! 
Other weapons no less effective in the hands of a master 
are irony, sarcasm, and invective. John Randolph 
employed these in a most cutting way, with elongated 
arms and long, bony forefinger pointing at the object 
of his aversion as with a stick. Samuel Houston char- 
acterized Jefferson Davis as " Ambitious as Lucifer and 
cold as a lizard," an instance typical of his stinging 
humor. John Quincy Adams had a power in invective 
under which men winced and cowered, even became 
dumb or furious with mad rage before his fiercer assaults, 
and he used it untiringly and without mercy. 

Such methods, and the list might be prolonged indefi- 
nitely, indicate the range of the compelling force ; it 
varies at need from the lightest touch of displeasure to 
the death-dealing vengeance wreaked by an Assir-Natsir 
Pal. Be this force, however, rigorous or mild, its gen- 

1 The extremities to which ancient monarchs would go is graphically 
set forth by the Assyrian Assir-Natsir Pal's account, written about 
850 B.C., of his conquest. "They did not embrace my feet. With 
combat and with slaughter I attacked the city and captured it; three 
thousand of their fighting men I slew with the sword. Their spoil, their 
goods, their oxen, and their sheep I carried away. The numerous cap- 
tives I burned with fire. I captured many of the soldiers alive. I cut 
off the hands and feet of some, the ears, and fingers of others ; the eyes 
of numerous soldiers I put out. I built up a pyramid of the living and 
a pyramid of the heads. In the middle of them I suspended their 
heads on vine stems in the neighborhood of their city. Their young 
men and their maidens I burned on a holocaust. The city I overthrew, 
dug up, and burned with fire. I annihilated it." West, Ancient His- 
tory, 55- 



SELF-GOVERNMENT 197 

eral effect is to induce fear ; and fear is the great inhib- 
itor of action. 

2. Social, Moral, or Religious Supplements. — The 
one disciplined is not an isolated individual but a member 
of an organization or group. The initial compulsion 
visited upon him thus may be multiplied manyfold, pro- 
vided his group also turn upon him. In this loss of gen- 
eral esteem, this forfeiture of fellowship and respect 
and religious peace, with all cultivated natures, lies the 
real onus of guilt ; few, even the most stiff-necked, can 
long bear up under it. 

But unduly coercive methods unite the group in 
opposition, make a hero of the wrongdoer, and in this 
way defeat their own ends. Religious persecution 
abounds in instances of this overdone sort. Anne Dur- 
bourg, condemned to be burned alive, by exhorting to 
her very last breath, made more converts among the by- 
standers than had the books of Calvin ; said Latimer to 
Ridley when he was led out to be burned, " We shall this 
day light such a candle in England as shall not soon be 
put out," a prophecy abundantly verified. But simi- 
larly fruitful have been the deaths of those faithful to 
Catholicism ; " The blood of the martyrs is the seed of 
the Church." We must conclude that resistance even 
unto martyrdom does not prove the truth of anything. 
The martyr spirit, as Professor Ross points out, 1 is a 
mark not of truth but of collective reaction. 

If effectiveness is to be secured, this collective reaction 
must be turned against the culprit in support of the 
punishment. Ben Butler usually had the numerous 
" hangers-on " in the court room on his side from the 
start, and he deftly employed their glances and audible 
approval for the discomfiture of the hostile witness. 
The Keiser Company heads off any resentment due to 

1 Soc. Psy., 304. Cf. 299-305. 



iq8 DISCIPLINE 

penalties for tardiness by turning these fines into the 
fund for needy employees. A merchant having too many 
slow-pay customers, by offering prizes for the best essays 
on "How to Collect Poor Accounts," stirred up so 
much talk over credit and what should be done with 
those who did not pay that not only did his cash business 
increase rapidly, but many, evidently fearing that their 
neighbors' suggestions would be employed upon them, 
paid up. The public schools have worked out notable 
instances of pupil government, and in pursuance of the 
same policy college faculties have encouraged the honor 
system. The principle, whatever concrete forms it may 
take, is clear : disciplinary power may be so supplemented 
that its original source in the executive is broadened until 
self-government ensues. 

j. The Degree of Publicity. — Shall the discipline be 
publicly or privately administered ? A sufficient answer 
perhaps is found in the above discussion ; it depends 
upon the relations existing between offender and organ- 
ization. When the eyes of the many indicate contempt, 
scorn, or disdain, strength of control inheres in the public 
spectacle. To the contrary, punishment being even 
pleasurable when inflicted before a sympathizing group, 
no miscreant should be permitted to fashion for himself 
a neat make-up in the public mirror. Let him suffer 
in private. 

In the group, moreover, there is likely to be found 
both saint and sinner. The sensitiveness of the saint 
need not be unduly abused by witnessing the crude yet 
salutary measures necessary to restrain the sinner. 
Let the coarse malefactor have private punishment, 
consequently ; knowledge of what transpired is sure to 
seep to others of his kind. 

Frequent discipline, in addition, indicates friction, its 
suggestion effect in this way being negative. Hence the 



A DISPENSER OF JUSTICE 199 

added value of private punishment. Hence, too, the 
effectiveness of " nipping troubles in the bud," of " iron- 
ing out spots that threaten trouble." The organization 
which apparently runs smoothly by its seeming harmony 
tends to make these indications a reality. 

4. Formalized Discipline. — Discipline in any organ- 
ization does not rest solely upon the initiative of its 
executive, upon territory de novo; there are certain 
accretions upon which it may build. Society in general 
has its conventions and customs in conformity to which 
all men are expected to act. Each type of minor organ- 
ization still further modifies these broad social rules, 
working out regulations which apply more particularly 
to its own activities. The medical profession has its 
code; so has the steamntters' union. More or less 
happily meeting the situation and hallowed by usage, 
sometimes, in fact, hardened into a written form backed 
up by authority of the state, such rules and regula- 
tions in themselves constitute a binding force. The 
railroad enginemen expect punishment to fall upon the 
fellow member who disobeys orders ; he himself expects 
it, usually accepts it as his lot. 'Tis the rule of the road ! 
Discipline has become formalized, and, though wielded 
by an organization head, both its necessity and the forms 
and degrees of its punishment take on an impersonal 
character. Individual resentment if it be aroused dashes 
itself fruitlessly against the gnarled trunks of ancient trees. 

5. A Sense of Detachment. — He who wields the rod 
should appear not foe but dispenser of justice. Brutish 
violence, the red fang of violence, the glowering brow, 
bring fear, but they do not necessarily stir the monitor 
within the breast. It is, however, a matter of neither 
harsh penalty nor easy, but of the dispenser's being 
considered as the spokesman of Right, the embodiment 
of Justice, the mouthpiece of Divinity. 



*x> DISCIPLINE 

With this sense of detachment are connected three 
policies. First, the rule maker should respect his own 
regulations. It is related that when Cortes unwittingly 
violated the ordinances regarding attendance at divine 
services, he accepted reprimand from the pulpit on the 
following Sunday and, to the stupefaction of the Indians, 
submitted to the prescribed flogging in public. Such 
deeds are the greenhouse in which the sense of detach- 
ment may flourish. 

Second, with the passing of retaliation, the plea of 
extenuating circumstances gets a hearing. The intent 
may be considered. Punishment becomes an efficient 
psychological machine by means of which pressure is 
evenly distributed. 

And third, by this sense of detachment is settled the 
problem of burden bearing in reality. The onus of guilt 
belongs to the offender. Let it weigh upon him. The 
good disciplinarian does not swelter under a load of 
misdeeds, but rather does he bend every effort to a much 
more fruitful task, that of opening the path upon which 
the self-alienated may return home. Meanwhile his 
voice is strong, his face serene; for he has sinned not. 

6. The Element of Certainty. — The essence of disci- 
pline is the sense of restraint it induces. Its effective- 
ness as a weapon, therefore, in no wise depends upon 
the mere sum total of blows or demerits issued, but 
upon minimum compulsion's securing the desired con- 
trol. This fact emphasizes the importance of certainty ; 
it deters. The many who would transgress, knowing 
the fate of him who did, are thus without punishment 
bound to the ways of order. 

Moreover, this sense of restraint which pervades fac- 
tory, school, or state has its positive as well as its nega- 
tive effect. For, as Professor Ross rightly observes, 
the rules of the game are respected by the many good 



CERTAINTY OF PUNISHMENT 201 

men chiefly because they are forced upon the few bad. 
Were this respect not justified, goodness would be penal- 
ized and wickedness exalted in high places, a process in 
which any organization would be ground into dust under 
the iron heel of selfishness. But certainty, the faith 
that justice will be meted out, brings uneasiness and 
insurrection into the breast of the guilty, while the rule- 
abiding are calm and confident. It rewards as well as 
deters. 

It does not follow, however, that certainty is synony- 
mous with a long list of penalties drawn up with exact- 
ness and published in advance. Such procedure has evil 
influence, in that it seems to assume wrongdoing as a 
matter of course, by its list of possible offenses, suggest- 
ing crimes otherwise never conceived ; it apparently 
dares men to oppose, and there are those who cannot 
withstand a dare ; and especially does it turn the pro- 
spective wrongdoer into a skillful bargainer. " So 
much spoiled work, so many days off. Is the game 
worth the candle?" Hence along with certainty of 
punishment may be intertwined much uncertainty as 
to means and amount. Though he knows not what, 
the evildoer knows there is something. In the unfamiliar 
and the unknown lurks fear; and fear, once roused, 
haunts the mind. 

EXERCISES 

1. Suppose a contractor's laborers offered to become his 
slaves. Would it be to his advantage to accept? 

2. Why do executives find those married, or at least con- 
tributing to the family support, easier to discipline? 

3. What changes during the past century in family discipline? 
How does this affect executives? 

4. In disciplining factory operatives what penalties are most 
effective? 

5. Should capital punishment be abolished? Corporal pun- 
ishment in schools? 



202 DISCIPLINE 

6. Discuss the pros and cons of magnanimity as a policy of 
discipline. 

7. Should greater punishment be visited because of things 
done wrongly or things left undone? 

8. Outline a system of records for some specific organization, 
through which undesirable employees discharge themselves. 

READINGS 

Machiavelli, The Prince, Chs. XII-XIV. 
Roosevelt, Autobiography, Ch. XII. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Rewards 

"There is nothing men will not attempt when great enter- 
prises hold out the promise of great rewards." — Livy. 

Ranging from firmest determination to softest color- 
ation of consciousness, the call to effort evokes the 
query, What am I going to get out of this? Were it 
not so, satisfactions would have been spurned and the 
race, expending its energies fruitlessly, in the long 
struggle for existence had perished. Because it is so, 
the average man seeks the largest return for least effort, 
and executives are not only compelled to furnish these 
rewards, but to display them before adept bargainers. 

Lest this seem unduly to limit leadership to men of 
money, it may be pointed out that rewards are varied 
and need not necessarily savor of the material at all. 
Any small boy, with no thought of coin, would be proud 
to carry the sweater and protect the mitt of his major 
league hero. In such service is joy. Thousands trudged 
willingly along under the warm promises of Henry IV, 
the dashing example of Alexander, the glory paintings 
of Bonaparte, the splendor of Louis XIV's Versailles, 
the illusions of John Alexander Dowie, the fear felt 
for a Rameses or a Cyrus. Nor even in this rationalistic 
age have " solid realities " yet claimed the full orb of life. 
The non-material, even though at times intangible as 
the tints of a rainbow palace, has its place, may even 
be forsooth the most real of all realities. This becomes 

203 



20 4 REWARDS 

possible since rewards consist in certain psychic reactions, 
at bottom being not in things but of the mind. 

THE VARIETY OF REWARDS 

A whole gamut of rewards is thus thrown open for use. 
Public spectacles once pleased a people ; Nero provided 
these. Amorous attachment with the females captured in 
war was a Moslem longing ; Mohammed had a convenient 
revelation which removed all scruples. Security with 
the unseen was of deep interest to medieval Europe ; 
" Lo ! " said Tetzel. " Heaven is open. Oh, senseless 
men, who do not appreciate such a shedding forth of 
grace ! For twelve pennies you can deliver your father." 
A seat in the peerage was the bait Pitt industriously 
employed ; he ennobled with unsparing hands. National 
glory, political preferment, personal health, rejuvenated 
society, anything which shines in the eyes of men can be 
used for their reward. 

Now of these things which are accounted good, the 
material has never ceased to lure. By its ability to oil 
the wheels of social intercourse through lavishness in 
entertainment, winning thereby the coveted mate by 
outmatching feminine coyness with gilded display, 
and compelling social esteem by means of a wide-flung 
conspicuousness in leisure and a conspicuousness in 
waste ; with its costly sacrifices and sanctuaries and 
rich spoil finding favor with the unseen and making 
legal action devious but convenient ; and by its nodding 
or frowning upon artist, composer, playwright, author 
and journalist until even the once furious outcry over 
tainted money has been toned into respectability by 
tainted news and tainted ethics, — wealth makes vivid 
the Hindu poet's claim, " Verily a man with money is 
the top of all creation." At least the fact is clearly 



THE LURE OF GOODS 205 

emphasized, that since cravings in all forms may thus 
lay claim to goods, greed is whetted to a keen edge 
and avarice swells to monstrous proportions. 1 

Wealth lures ; in addition, it does not satiate. Unlike 
most other instincts in this respect, acquisitiveness 
expands without limit. The second glass of water 
yields less satisfaction than the first, the third apple 
possibly evokes no response whatever, the fourth griddle 
cake may be nauseating ; yet the first thousand dollars 
beckons for the second, the comfortable bank book is 
followed by the coupon, and hard upon this is the brown- 
stone, the country place, the steam yacht, more bank 
books and more coupons, — ad infinitum but not ad 
nauseam. The few men content with possession as a 
means of satisfying other desires are almost eclipsed by 
those desiring possession for its own sake. 

In material rewards, for those who are able, lies 
the possibility of much motivation. Folk came from 
all parts of Egypt to see Saladin, and none appealed 
to him in vain ! Men of seeming riches whose finances 
were in disorder, influential ladies in pecuniary embar- 
rassment, insolvent young nobles, merchants and 
bankers in distress, all applied to Caesar ; his gold, says 
Mommsen, flowed in streams. Before victory graced 
Mohammed's banners the idolatrous tribes of Arabia held 
aloof ; but the first cavalcade which entered the gates 
of Medina with the plunder of camp made converts of 
almost all the heathen inhabitants, and the hitherto 
ignored Mohammed was hailed as a triumphant chief. 
It was by means of champagne, sausages, and cigars 
that Napoleon III, the lavish dispenser, bought the 
shouts of " Vive Napoleon ! Vive l'Empereur ! " from 
whole regiments on the plains of St. Mairr. Be the 
circuit direct or many steps removed, money is able. 
1 Ross, Foundations of Sociology, 1 70-1 71. 



2o6 REWARDS 

The American, critics from abroad to be believed, is 
especially led by materialistic motives. Perhaps this 
is true, though by no means in the sordid sense implied. 
Americans from the first have rejected titles and class 
distinctions, in many respects, as compared with Euro- 
peans, developing a society devoid of charm. But in 
wealth was afforded a convenient means of differentia- 
tion, and this the American had adopted and utilized. 
In consequence, riches with us serve not as lucre, but as 
signs of personal prowess. 

These signs, however, are not so clear that he who 
runs may read. The millionaire has his automobile, 
but so has the multitude. His wife has a sealskin coat 
and a diamond necklace; the cunningly disguised 
badger's skin adorns the drug clerk's wife, and the coal 
heaver's spouse wears paste diamonds " detected only 
by experts." Such " successes " — and they are wide- 
spread — intensify to maddening pitch the pursuit of 
wealth. The itch for gold spreads throughout the social 
system until even the vaunted idealist, though possibly 
self -deluded, at heart here moves with the multitude. 
It is true, the crass appeal to gain is resented, most men 
preferring to pose a bit ; but at bottom the pocketbook 
argument usually wins. 1 

Especially is this true when the task is prosaic. The 
discoverer of the North Pole, the painter of the salon 
prize winner, the writer of an immortal poem, in honor 
reaps his true reward. His name is forever connected 
up with his product, his task necessarily being more or 
less spectacular, and bringing rewards from many sources. 

1 The New Freedom at Washington was ushered in by a deluge of 
demands to serve the government — with proper emoluments. Speaker 
Clark kept four stenographers busy dictating replies to his job seekers. 
Confessed another Congressman, " I have received about a thousand letters 
in the past four days, and they are still coming." The motto properly 
revised evidently was, "Apply the way you vote." 



EMPHASIS ON MONEY 207 

Not so with the carpenter, the blacksmith, the sweat- 
shop tailor, with all those whose labor is secret because 
to the user the maker is unknown. His product bestows 
no great public honor upon the concrete mixer or the 
workman who, in the division of labor, makes one three 
hundred and fiftieth of a shoe. Yet these men, too, 
must have a motive; this is pecuniary, necessarily so. 
It is not without reason, since life abounds with stupid 
tasks, that money rewards easily overtop all other 
methods of stimulation and control. 

APPORTIONING REWARDS 

In seeking for principles upon which to base an effec- 
tive system of rewards we plunge into the most lively 
problem of present-day management. All the old sys- 
tems are under fire ; workmen and job are being sub- 
jected to laboratory analysis, new methods are being 
devised and tested out. It seems indeed that the im- 
portance of the human energy element in industry is in 
process of realization. 

It may be well at the outset to focus attention upon 
this fact, that what is primarily desired from workmen is 
not fatigue, but results. It is perhaps a natural tendency 
of our nature to measure labor by its irksomeness, the 
penance idea in industry. This, however, does not 
accord with what to the management is the fundamental 
reason why wages are paid at all, viz. the productive- 
ness of labor. Accordingly, the executive ranks are be- 
coming more and more closed to that old-time manager 
whose view of efficiency was based upon a crude measure 
of muscle weariness. The muscles, it is true, may be- 
come weary; nevertheless, men are not paid because 
they grow tired at work, but because they produce. 

A primary principle, therefore, is that rewards are to 



208 REWARDS 

be graded according to results produced. Here lurks 
another fallacy, vigorously seized upon and emphasized 
by agitators, and responsible, no doubt, for much unrest 
among wage earners, — the view that production refers 
solely to material objects. According to this view, the 
concrete mixer is the real builder of the bridge and is 
entitled to the full reward thereof, a part of which, how- 
ever, often an extremely large part, being somehow 
filched from him by architect, contractor, and other 
leisurely gentlemen. But production refers merely to 
the creation of utilities, and these, being defined as what- 
ever is able to satisfy wants, may be either material or 
non-material. In this sense it is clear that so far as 
their ability to produce utilities is concerned, all men 
within an organization are not of equal value. The 
division of labor has made for a ranking of men accord- 
ing to types of effort manifested by each, and rewards 
have been made somewhat proportional. A certain 
shoe manufacturer pays a stores clerk at beginning 
fifteen dollars per week, an amount which, increased as 
he becomes more experienced, yields the head of the stores 
department one thousand five hundred dollars per year. 
Another well-known manufacturer, an automobile maker, 
in his plants has rewards ranging from fifteen cents an 
hour to sixty thousand dollars per year. 

The grading of rewards has in general stopped short 
of those at the basis of our industrial pyramid, here 
being commonly enforced the flat day wage rate. The 
man is paid for his time ; what he does during this time, 
while it may possibly affect the tenure of his position, is 
without influence on his wage rate. Even though the 
wages paid to the group presumably are fair, the indus- 
trious and efficient workman is hampered. He sees 
that additional or better directed effort, so far as rewards 
are concerned, is thrown away. He proceeds to "sol- 



SYSTEMATIC "SOLDIERING" 209 

dier " systematically. Example is infectious, and his, 
set by a superior workman, is especially so ; the con- 
tagion spreads through the plant, and from plant to 
plant, until, as now, systematic soldiering becomes a 
dry-rot menace in industry. 

Should the above-average workman seek to raise his 
wage, he does it through collective bargaining, usually 
conducted by means of trade-unions. A new wage rate 
is brought about by collective pressure. It means that 
poorer workmen are then overpaid and hence demoral- 
ized, that the exceptional man is still underpaid, that 
mediocrity is enthroned, that the management often 
suffers from extortion, and that the seeds of discord 
spread broadcast yield harvests of inefficiency. 

In practice, not all these evils usually are encountered 
in any one instance. The workmen are put under the 
watchful eye of a foreman. Wages are set at what a 
good man should be willing to work for. The foreman 
drives his gang at the swiftest pace possible. Laggards 
are discharged, in so far as collective pressure from other 
members will permit. Exceptional men by and by 
may be made foremen. These endure the present dis- 
advantage, discounting them in the light of later pros- 
pects. While all workmen still receive the same wage, 
the flat rate is somewhat modified and supplemented. 
But these changes usually are slight and represent no 
break in the order of things. 

To satisfy ambition and stimulate initiative, to meet 
the claims of justice as well, rewards must rest, not upon 
time taken but work done. It means an entire shift in 
point of view. And to operate it successfully requires 
not merely skill in management but also moral fiber. 

There are numerous variations of this wage plan, 
some managers meeting success with one type, some 
with another, as particular conditions vary. But they 



210 REWARDS 

all require a standard reward to be set. Fundamentally, 
the distribution of wealth is here involved, the question 
of how best to divide into its four parts the returns of 
industry, viz. wages, interest, rent, and profits. With 
human nature as it is, each party in the apportionment 
magnifying its own influence while minimizing the 
claims of the other sharers, we may be sure that the an- 
tagonism which arises between capital and labor will 
persist for a very long time. The best remedy, and, 
from his standpoint, the only real solution of the labor 
problem, perhaps, is that the executive shall become 
efficient in producing and fair in dividing. And this, 
happily, is now in process. 

In setting the standard reward itself, various methods 
have been employed. The management may decide 
and announce the fact, the employees may decide and 
employ pressure to enforce their wishes, a man picked 
by the company and another picked by the workmen 
may work together and average their output during a 
specified time, an arbitrator can be called in either to 
work or to estimate, or the standard reward may be set 
in conference. However decided upon, should it be 
accepted as satisfactory, the basic requirement will have 
been met. 

This standard reward in practice is subject to numer- 
ous modifications. One form widely employed is the 
piece rate. The more units completed the higher the 
wage. This flat piece rate in turn may be modified 
into the differential piece rate, the higher the number 
being turned out the greater the piece price rate. Or 
it may be a cost rate. The management is willing to 
pay a certain wage cost per article produced. The slow 
worker gets a low wage because with him the standard 
cost wage is divided by the relatively large number of 
hours it took him to complete the product. The rapid 



WAGE SYSTEMS 211 

worker doubles his wages by cutting down his time one 
half as compared with the standard time. Or again it 
may be a premium rate. Sometimes this premium is 
given all who complete the standard task set. At 
other times the premium itself is graded, the bonus 
increasing proportionally as the standard task is ex- 
ceeded. 

By such means, and in their combination and adap- 
tation, individuality is recognized in that the reward 
is made specific and personal, more fitting. High- 
grade men get top-notch wages, low-grade men are 
scaled down. Such a payment plan works both ways, 
attracting the efficient and eliminating the incompetent. 
Its effect is to develop the working force able to increase 
output. 

This increased output is maintained at a less unit 
cost than was formerly possible even under what likely 
was a considerably lower day wage rate. Managers are 
coming to look behind high or low wages so-called, and 
focus their eye on this production cost per article. To 
take an illustration from the field of mechanics, it is 
estimated that thirty-seven Chinese coolies working 
on a treadmill are required in order to produce one con- 
tinuous horse power. Though their wages are only one 
cent per hour, the annual cost for one horse power is 
$1336. Our managers may pay for the same power 
only thirteen dollars. Hence, should such one-cent-per- 
hour employees by chance be discovered at work in an 
American shop, they would be discharged summarily 
as the most ruinous of expense makers. What really 
interests executives is the possibility — and it is being 
realized again and again — that with high wages may 
still be secured low labor cost. 

Much is said of the common interests of employer and 
employee, but in a very real sense their relations also 



212 REWARDS 

contain an element of antagonism. The employer desires 
product, wages being merely a means to that end. The 
employee, vice versa, desires wages, product with him 
being merely a means to an end. In this, as in other 
situations, it is common for rivals to clash. Here then 
is another task for the executive ; although wages have 
been adjusted so that minimum reward induces maximum 
expenditure, the men's success should be bound up with 
that of the management. 

" Caesar," says Mommsen, " took care that victory, 
which primarily no doubt brings gain to the general, 
should be associated also with personal hopes in the 
minds of the soldiers." Cortes had some of the best 
men of Cuba rallied to his standard and financially 
interested in having his expedition succeed. John 
Quincy Adams refused to secure his reelection by the 
use of patronage ; but coining the phrase, " You may 
say to all our anxious Adamsite friends that the barnacles 
will be scraped clean of the Ship of State" Hill, an emis- 
sary of the " Old Hero," rallied new hosts of self- 
seekers to do valorous service. Jackson was elected 
and his friends were remembered. Only an occasional 
politican — and he usually a single termer — has since 
repeated Adams' blunder ! 

What the politician has done, the average executive 
may even more so do. The plan is first to determine 
the factors upon which his success depends ; secondly, 
to grade the rewards so that these particular factors will 
be realized in practice. Has the problem of labor 
become so simplified through the use of machinery that 
the machine, not the man, is the predominant factor? 
A flat day wage suffices. It may be bestowed upon 
any one able to meet the pace mechanically set. But 
does quantity rest upon individual initiative? The 
piecework plan supplies the incentive. It allows the 



APPEALS TO SELF-INTEREST 213 

employees to align themselves. Or does success to the 
manager rest upon quality ? A day rate with emphasis 
upon this requirement, with penalties for low-grade work, 
perhaps, being the most positive emphasis, will yield 
high standard product. The quality road is fully as 
pleasant as the quantity road if the rewards beckon that 
way. In the case just cited, however, quantity is apt 
to be neglected. But piece rates with standard quality 
maintained by inspection can be adjusted to secure 
both quantity and quality. Or again, does this execu- 
tive find his success lies in non-fluctuating output or long 
tenures for employees? Although statistical tabula- 
tion indicates his field is of hill and dale, proper adjust- 
ment of rewards will grade it flat. And long tenure 
follows hard upon cumulative rewards based upon length 
of service. 

When their own success is bound up with that of the 
management, men lend a ready ear to pleas of common 
interest, since this covers self-interest as well. 1 

BESTOWING REWARDS 

As a general thing it may be said that the present 
discounts the future. The " now " is more lively in the 
mind than the " after a while." The reward which comes 
four times a month, therefore, is able to buy more human 

1 A new general storekeeper, appointed to put a stop to the general 
negligence and waste which had developed in a railroad system that 
heretofore had not held its men accountable for the supplies they drew, 
had he proceeded in summary fashion would have made a host of sincere 
and dangerous enemies, rebels resentful of any doubts cast upon their 
honesty or veracity. The new chief announced: "We're in a receiver's 
hands, and every nickel counts. It counts as much for our steady wages 
as it does for the road. So I'm asking you to turn in every supply item 
you're ready to throw away ; to sign for everything I furnish you ; and, 
for all our sakes, to make everything go as far as it can." The wasteful 
use of supplies suddenly stopped. 



214 REWARDS 

effort than its equivalent paid in one lump sum at the 
close of the month, simply because it yields greater 
stimulation. Hence the opposition of certain building 
contractors, for instance, to the weekly payment plan 
showed a curious disregard of their own interests. Not 
only should they have voluntarily broken away from 
the monthly payment system, but they might well eschew 
checks and pay in crisp one-dollar bills. 

Readiness of payment, however, should not be pushed 
to the extreme of payment in advance. With all for- 
ward-looking people — and those who accomplish are 
mostly of this sort — the future discounts the past. 
Thus, in contrast to the witching anticipation of what 
may be, what has been is at best a prosy figure. Effort 
in return for satisfactions already enjoyed is pretty apt 
to be of a dogged stick-to-it-tive sort. 

Proper bestowal should not only regard time but spirit. 
Grudgingly given, they impress upon workers the view 
that rewards are forced from the management. The im- 
plication which follows is that pressure should be applied 
to this unwilling source, it being perhaps easier to coerce 
the employer into granting the added reward than to 
earn it by turning out more product. And this pressure 
tends to increase every time the management yields, 
even though in the meantime an Ancient Regime nears 
collapse or a factory drifts toward the danger zone. 

Willingly granted, rewards cause workers to feel that 
it is their mastery over conditions which yields the 
wage. This, in fact, is the correct view ; wages can be 
paid only because labor applied, creates utilities and 
increases value. It is his mastery over conditions which 
fills the working man's pay envelope. Let him act 
from this standpoint, and he will pursue with whetted 
zeal his mastery over crude forces. The difference is 
vital ; it entails no less than a change in point of view. 



EXERCISES AND READINGS 215 



EXERCISES 

1. What are the rewards enjoyed by the alderman? The 
iron molder? The baseball player? Are wage earners too 
materialistic in their attitude toward rewards? 

2. Why have chairs for employees, electric fans, dancing at 
noon hour, etc., been opposed by some employers? 

3. If necessary, and as a constant policy, how high wages can 
an employer pay ? How low wages could laborers accept ? What 
sets the actual wage? 

4. Does increased production on the part of certain workmen 
throw other workmen out of employment ? What view as to this 
do laborers hold? 

5. Why are there strikes among wage earners? Why not 
among office workers? 

6. Is the control of patronage a source of strength to a man 
in public life? 

7. Outline the system of reports and other records that some 
organization uses as a basis for its rewards. 

READINGS 

Taussig, Principles of Economics , II, Ch. 47. 
Gantt, Work, Wages } and Profits. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
Idealism 

"The zeal of nature never cools, 
Nor is she thwarted of her ends ; 
When gapped and dulled her cheaper tools, 
Then she a saint and prophet sends." 

— James Russell Lowell. 

Ideals possess an unique power, as has been, and 
is being, demonstrated again and again. The knightly 
type made chivalry, and redeemed the Middle Ages of 
much barrenness ; ^ the crusader ideal drew thousands 
over trails made desolate by the withering bones of those 
who had gone before; the dazzling image of glory and 
honor for Fair France is the secret of Napoleon's phe- 
nomenal sway ; the ideals of liberty, equality, progress, 
and fair dealing among men profoundly and continuously 
stir ninety- three millions of Americans ; just as truth, 
honor, devotion to home and country, are among those 
conceptions which, proposed to his mind as a goal, 
draw the individual on to attainment. The ideal is a 
standard tinged with emotion, able to provide both 
the vision which inspires and the social mirror in which 
the personal self is admired or scorned. 

Whence are ideals derived ? They spring up natu- 
rally whenever men make common cause together, and, 
viewed in their most far-reaching and general aspects, 
are a product of the milieu. Society is the great 
artificer, overhauling codes, modifying customs, shaping 
ideals, all in her own interest. In her attempt to 

216 



THE APPEAL OF IDEALS 217 

realize perpetuity, she lays hold of certain desired types 
of conduct, soldier courage, nurse tenderness, mother 
love, judge sternness, minister compassion, and exalts 
them for admiration and imitation. Note, for instance, 
how the soldier ideal, embracing such difficult elements 
as courage, endurance, fidelity, and self-sacrifice, is 
impressed upon men. Everywhere this desired type is 
glorified by literature, applauded at banquet table and 
parade, reverenced by religion, honored by monuments, 
statues, festivals, and commemorations. Whereas 
all disparagement of the soldier, the cruelties, hard- 
ships, agonies, and harassments he both inflicts and 
endures, is restrained, the adventurous, dramatic, and 
picturesque elements are flashed before the dazzled eye ; 
soldier worth is emphasized on the most momentous and 
solemn occasions, and associated with all that is beau- 
tiful and holy. 1 A set of values as to what is worthy 
is thus minted. It after a time comes to be accepted 
as true coin of the realm ; all of us, children especially, 
being taught to take it without discounting. 

This is true not only of the soldier but of the physi- 
cian, the priest, the railroader ; in fact, the various voca- 
tions, the sexes, the classes, all possess ideals. Gener- 
alized into abstract types they constitute the moral 
virtues. 2 Conformity to them insures self-respect, 
disobedience brings shame. In a most subtle way, 
therefore, idealism offers both rose and thorn. Its ap- 
peal, voiced by leaders, has shown a capacity to exalt 
duty rather than privilege, evaluate honor higher than 
victory, emphasize motive as well as result, set at naught 
the easy doctrine of expediency, make stern justice more 
attractive than the goddess of goods, and wean men 
from the luring bowers of self-interest to become toilers 
for the common welfare. 

1 Ross, Soc. Con., 223-224. 2 Ross, op. cit., 226, 235. 



218 IDEALISM 

Idealism is no mere azure haze, but a reality based 
solidly upon the collective struggle for existence. In 
this struggle, efficient group action makes for survival. 
Accordingly, qualities which whet men for effort, such 
as courage, industry, ambition, and perseverance, espe- 
cially for cooperative effort, such as forbearance, obe- 
dience, and service, have all been stamped approved by 
successful group after group in this world-old struggle. 
Products of the common consciousness, group ways of 
looking at things, standards emotionalized, social ideals 
in an imperious way guide the destiny of the race. 

Does it not seem that the executive, whether he deal 
with men in factory, commercial club, or church brother- 
hood, should not cease to use and cultivate this idealistic 
streak in human nature ? Each man, drawing from the 
common stock of ideals, has through them an inner mo- 
tivating force, and this force can be stupidly opposed 
or wisely taken advantage of by him who directs. But 
more than this, ideals are in themselves a normal growth, 
some sort, good or ill, evolving whenever men associate 
in organizations together. This opportunity the execu- 
tive will embrace, for the good of his organization 
becoming a shaper of ideals. 

PHASES OF IDEALISM 

In what may, perhaps, be termed its primary form, 
idealism rests upon the ground of common economic 
interest. Such appeal may no doubt appear crude — 
" give more, get more " — nevertheless it is strong. A 
typical example is profit sharing, the essential difference 
here being, as compared with the usual methods of pay- 
ment, that part of the individual's reward is directly condi- 
tioned by the prosperity of the company. Since his 
personal prosperity to this extent rises and falls with 



PROFIT SHARING 219 

that of the group to which he belongs, he tends to be 
mindful of the general interest, making his own efforts 
more productive and keeping a watchful eye upon 
others. 

From such a plan, one might reasonably expect, would 
issue a transformation in industry; and such, in fact, 
has been the result in certain instances. Its numerous 
failures may be traced, it would seem, to industry's 
being subject to fluctuations, which change the amount 
of total profit and hence premiums distributed ; to the 
financial operations' being intricate or secret, perhaps 
under present conditions necessarily so, which to the 
common man places premium on faith, not fact ; and to 
the fact that whereas the workmen's standard of living 
is advanced readily, once raised it tends to be lowered 
only under pressure. 

At any rate, the ideal of mutuality has made steady 
progress during the last decade and now manifests itself 
in a great variety of efforts. Social insurance, pensions, 
museums of safety, libraries, housing and recreation 
facilities, cooperative discipline, and profit-sharing indi- 
cate that the relations of capital and labor have become 
more sympathetic, and a new spirit moves in industry. 

A higher type of idealism does not rest with mutuality, 
but involves subordination to that which is regarded as 
superior to self. This commonly results whenever men 
associate on good terms together. Each puts forward 
the kindly word, the cheery smile, the optimistic ex- 
terior, cramping into hidden nook his private griefs and 
bravely claiming, " All is well." There thus emerges a 
collective consciousness higher than that of the individ- 
uals who compose it and to which they yield obedient 
service. 

From the difficulty of visualizing the individual 
members of a group, especially if this group be large, 



22o IDEALISM 

there by and by emerges a somewhat abstract con- 
sciousness — spirit of cooperation in the business house, 
college spirit of the student body, esprit de corps of a regi- 
ment, civic pride in a city, patriotism in a nation, zeal 
of the theocratic devotee. Mere ideas? True, but 
lively ideas, images that stimulate. The war spirit, 
roused by the attack on Sumter in '61, augmented by 
burning sermons from pulpits, military proclamations 
and orders in every paper, radiant bunting and brass 
bands in every city, war speeches and war appropria- 
tions in every legislature and every city or town council, 
stirred the North until every village green was a muster- 
ing ground, peaceful foundries and workshops com- 
menced casting guns or making cartridges, and parades, 
drums, flags, and bayonets filled the streets. Ours was 
a people devoted to an ideal not dimmed though four 
years of blood must intervene. 

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, a magical formula 
underlying one great popular movement after another, 
during the French Revolution turned its adherents into 
preachers and propagandists, passionate proselyters of 
foreigners, and convinced its leaders that, supported 
by the Almighty, the Republic had been decreed since 
the beginning of time. The theocratic ideal nerved the 
Boers through long years of fruitless strife, intense po- 
litical faith in our own day has caused hardened politi- 
cians with bared heads to sing " Onward, Christian 
Soldiers," x and socialism by many of its followers is 

1 The Roosevelt convention at Chicago was thus commented upon 
by the New York Times. 

"Let no one mistake the Progressive Party. Theodore Roosevelt 
may or may not be bitten by personal ambition, but the men who are 
following him believe sincerely that they are followers of the Lord en- 
listed for the battle of Armageddon. They may be absolutely wrong 
about it, but about the strength of their conviction there cannot remain 
a doubt in the mind of anybody who saw the strange, moving, and com- 



THE USE OF IDEALS 221 

being stripped of all economic details and embraced 
as a new religion. It is hard to withstand men so 
possessed. 

An ideal is a standard, plus emotion. As is indicated 
by the above, these two elements may be compounded 
in varying proportions. The workman who prods his 
listless neighbor because he feels that good application 
on the latter's part will mean a few cents added to his 
own pay check, may represent one extreme in this com- 
pounding, the rational element predominating very 
nearly unto selfishness; the other extreme, perhaps, is 
the zealot enraptured by some such vision as God's 
rules on earth, a conception thoroughly emotionalized. 
Between these extremes are all possible gradations, and 
it is for the executive to decide which proportion of each 
element serves him best. 

EFFECTIVE IDEALISM 

As a practical policy, the efficiency of idealism, par- 
ticularly in its higher phases, is conditioned by the 
following factors : 

j. Enlisting the Imagination. — In multiplying effort 
manyfold, the imagination plays a royal role. An indi- 
cation, a vague hint, is a stimulus to thought, the 
initiator of completed scenes. The imaginative appeal 
carves out bold headlines, with strokes that rouse the 
mind to supply its own details. The leader with a flash 
of wit, a stirring phrase, a brilliant generalization, a 

pelling spectacle in the Coliseum to-day. It was not a convention at 
all. It was an assemblage of religious enthusiasts. It was such a con- 
vention as Peter the Hermit held. It was a Methodist camp meeting 
done over into political terms. From Jane Addams of Hull House fame, 
sitting in the first rank below the platform, to Judge Ben Lindsay of 
Denver, sitting halfway down the hall, there was an expression on every 
face of fanatical and religious enthusiasm." 



222 IDEALISM 

dazzling prophecy, evokes imagery ; and followers, pos- 
sessed of this, love to do the rest. 1 

2. Right Adjustment of Ideals. — An ideal too distant 
loses its power to draw; too near, is commonplace. 
There is, in consequence, some point at which for any 
particular individual or situation its effectiveness reaches 
maximum, and it is the executive's practical problem to 
locate this. 

In his own mind Daniel Burnham saw beautiful visions 
of cities to be ; his supreme gift lay not in these but in 
visualizing them in most practical terms for the big 
men of his day. A certain well-known president of an 
agricultural college, a born idealist, enthuses over the 
wonders of the rural life that is to come ; but he, too, 
along with panegyrics concerning " God's great out-of- 
doors," has much to say of improved drainage, crop 
rotation, and commercial fertilizer. 

Ideals may thus reach from the most prosaic up to the 
azure heights. Followers may lay hold where they will. 

5. Expectation. — One who rules through idealism 
usually is characterized by enthusiastic expectation. 
He represents the onward flowing, upward striving as- 
pects of life, faith in the possibility of great accomplish- 
ment. The clear-eyed scientist may disprove his 
assumptions at every step, the philosophic pessimist 

1 Chairman Beveridge at the Chicago convention aroused outbursts 
of approval by his statement: "We stand for a nobler America. We 
stand for an undivided nation." The details which a little later he 
attempted to present proved boring. Such would especially be the case 
in a fervent group such as the Progressives were. Still, the President 
in his inaugural showed judgment in besprinkling his brief address with 
such image-provoking gems as: "This is the high enterprise of the new 
day : to lift everything that concerns our life as a nation to the light 
that shines from the hearthfire of every man's conscience and vision of 
the right. . . . The feelings with which we face this new age of right 
and opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out of God's 
own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge and 
the brother are one." 



EXPECTANCY APPEALS 223 

readily points out that his ends are chimeras; yet the 
world of men, nevertheless, continues to belong to the 
man of hope. All great periods of revival, of expansion 
of the human mind, especially those outbursts of intel- 
lectual and moral vigor ushered in by Jesus, Luther, 
Wesley, Rousseau, Fichte, Carlyle, have been based 
upon the appeal that ourselves and the highest are 
linked together, that God and man may be bound into 
one. Those who deny this, who would close the channels 
to these inherent and powerful tendencies in human 
nature, cannot hope to triumph. 1 Mankind is moving 
forward. 

Even failure so-called does not disprove the value of 
expectation. The street sweeper possibly is not the 
great public benefactor the commissioner believes him 
to be, the convict is doubtless pictured far too favorably 
by the generous warden, the struggling little college 
fails to secure the enrollment and endowment prophesied 
by its president, the convert may later prove the evan- 
gelist was mistaken; the results do not measure up to 
fervent expectation, the glow departs, the promised 
land becomes dimmed before realization. Neverthe- 
less, this positive faith in great attainment has made 
the real attainment surpass what otherwise it would 
have been. The leader, a man of optimism, enthusiasm, 
and faith, has pointed toward the heights and bade 
men transcend the limitations which pure reason would 
dictate. He demands much and gets it. Expectation 
justifies itself by its fruits. 

4. Indirect Control. — Idealism is usually not thought 
of as a method of control ; it varies so widely from the 
ordinary patterns of restraint. Because it seeks to 
develop standards and emotionalize them, leaving to 
these the securing of conduct, its approach, in fact, is 
1 James, Prin. of Psy., II, 314-315. 



224 IDEALISM 

somewhat removed. It lacks the direct swing, the 
cramp, the crushing triumph over miscreant and brute 
which renders discipline so powerful an engine of order. 
Yet these latter may not necessarily be the best means 
of securing control; they readily degenerate and, by 
prohibiting free inquiry, criticism, and unhampered 
choice, and destroying self-confidence, render those 
who yield ignorant and servile men. Control is gained, 
but at excessive cost. 1 

The other method seemingly is all too circuitous, 
— to attempt controlling salesmen, for instance, by lift- 
ing up their position, telling them the history of the 
company, pointing out the officials who have climbed 
up from small positions, of how the company now holds 
a unique place in the world's work and that its services 
to society are indispensable ; yet such a process implants 
an ideal whose restraint, however indirect, illusive, and 
apparently permitting full self-direction, is none the 
less real. It, moreover, produces subordinates of spirit, 
moral strength, and manly independence, granite upon 
which an organization may safely build. 

5. Enlightened Partnership. — The division of labor 
within our huge commonwealth has in a most subtle 
way clipped the wings of idealism. The individual has 
become a cog, and an unseeing cog at that. " As sad a 
sight as an old hand-loom worker in a factory attempting 
to make his clumsy machine compete with the flying 
shuttles about him," says Miss Addams, " is a working 
man equipped with knowledge so meager that he can 
get no meaning into his life nor sequence between his 
acts and the far-off results. . . . The man in the fac- 
tory, as well as the man with the hoe, has a grievance 
beyond being overworked and disinherited, in that he 
does not know what it is all about." 2 

1 Ross, Soc. Con., 244. 2 Democracy and Social Ethics, 212, 211. 



THE VISION WHICH INSPIRES 225 

But the danger is wider than industry. The wage 
earner may year after year make numberless twenty- 
fifths of a shoe, never a whole one; yet business men, 
professional men, transporters, farmers, and miners 
likewise have their hearts and minds continually focused 
upon narrow segments of the social life. Unable to 
visualize the teeming millions with whose welfare every 
effort of theirs, in reality, is connected up, they, too, 
isolated, perish for want of vision. 

Enlightened partnership is needed to restore the 
personal connection between means and ends, to exalt 
the individual life by showing how in every act one's 
influence affects the entire organization, even penetrates 
into the uttermost parts of the earth. Such partnership 
affords unity, the sense of mechanical, intellectual, 
moral, and spiritual solidarity, by means of which the 
lives which otherwise might be lost are rounded into 
fullness. 

6. Self- Alignment. — In the process of action and 
reaction, idealism transforms not subordinates alone, 
but executive as well. Partaker of the spirit which 
animates them, controlled by the same standards round 
which they rally, he necessarily identifies himself and 
his ambitions with the welfare of the movement of which 
he is a part. His individual personality expands to its 
overpersonal task, that of serving as the symbol of a 
cause. When a regal nature is thus animated by con- 
tact with the universal, selfish interests fade and joy is 
found in service. 

EXERCISES 

1. Why are men of idealistic attitudes preferred by industrial 
concerns ? 

2. Should the firm practicing profit sharing keep its books 
open for employee inspection? Should workmen share losses 
the same as profits? 

Q 



226 IDEALISM 

3. Trace the development of professional ethics among lawyers. 
Physicians. Accountants. 

4. Contrast in some concrete instance the control of men by 
discipline with that by ideals. 

5. Compare the methods employed by Bismarck as chancellor 
with those of Roosevelt as president. 

6. Of what influence upon its standards is the growing tend- 
ency toward university rather than office training for the pro- 
fessions? 

READINGS 

Ross, Social Control, Chs. XVII-XVIII. 
Roosevelt, Autobiography, Ch. V. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Instruction 

" The era of force must give way to that of knowledge, and the 
policy of the future will be to teach and to lead." 

— Henry L. Gantt. 

The purpose of this chapter is to indicate how results 
may be secured through the systematic appeal to intelli- 
gence. This process is somewhat different in point of 
view and much more narrow in scope than education in 
general, including as the latter does such remote and 
comprehensive ends as preparation for complete living, 
character building, self-realization, or socialization. In- 
struction, to the contrary, consists in imparting knowl- 
edge and skill methodically, a much more specific task 
whose functions will become clearer as we proceed. 

The need for instruction began with man's origin, and 
never shall cease to be because there is always something 
to teach and some one who may profit thereby. The 
something to teach, moreover, is witnessing a wonderful 
expansion. Valuable data concerning railroading, min- 
ing, business, and politics, the product of busy brains in 
office, field, factory, and laboratory, are accumulating. 
These advance steadily out from book, magazine, 
lecture, convention, wherever on the firing line new 
thought combinations are evolved. It is perhaps not 
too much to say that, so far as the present is concerned, 
in these workable ideas is revealed the promised land. 

The executives of a past generation hoarded well their 
trade secrets. Only trusted employees knew much about 
the general processes of manufacturing and selling, while 

227 



228 INSTRUCTION 

the knowledge of special processes and plans was retained 
by the head of the firm and by him bequeathed as a 
family inheritance. The chief assets, in fact, often 
consisted in this knowledge held in secret. Such a view 
is now rapidly disappearing, necessarily so because 
industry and commerce are passing the one-man stage. 
In manufacturing, the single-proprietor establishments 
now employ only twelve per cent of the American wage 
earners and produce less than ten per cent of our total 
product ; corporations employ six times the number of 
workmen and manufacture seventy-nine per cent of 
the total output. Due to the fact of this collective 
production, men's interests are bound together; the 
executive is obliged to explain his plans, for other men 
must be intrusted to work them out. And it thus 
becomes increasingly true that he succeeds best who 
teaches best. 

It is perhaps to be expected that the statesman will 
educate the people to his way of thinking ; at least from 
the ancient Egyptian monarch, Ptah Hotep, to the 
candidate in the most recent " educational campaign " 
this seems to have been an approved course of procedure ; 
that the editor, the physician, and the preacher also will 
adopt some systematic means in molding the minds of 
their adherents, and in so doing will assume somewhat 
the functions of a teacher. But in industry and com- 
merce as well, it is being recognized increasingly that 
the welfare of their organizations is similarly connected 
up with instruction. In fact, it is coming to be less a 
question of whether or not it should be done, as how 
best to do it. 

FORMS OF INSTRUCTION 

This transmission of knowledge, once executives 
definitely seek to accomplish it, may be effected in a 



INSTRUCTION PLANS 229 

variety of ways. 1 The following cases will serve 
as types. The First National Bank of Chicago 
provides a library, a specialized collection of books, 
almanacs, and magazines treating of banking and 
finance. An industrial concern, the Weston Electrical 
Instrument Works, for its library has secured in addi- 
tion to standard reference works many volumes and 
periodicals which relate to machinery, engineering, and 
electricity. A number of the employees, their interest 
in things industrial being stimulated by this library, are 
taking courses in the Newark Technical School or in 
correspondence schools. So far has this library move- 
ment now won its way, that in visiting important con- 
cerns here and there one is agreeably surprised at the 
frequency with which he may discover a modest yet 
growing collection of books and bound volumes of trade 
journals. It is a practical method and, with the devel- 
opment of a specialized literature, bound to increase. 

The wholesalers and retailers of Boston cooperated 
to provide lectures on salesmanship. Various firm 
members addressed the class; in connection with the 
addresses demonstrations being given. More commonly 
individual concerns have lecturers appear before their 
own employees, the subjects selected being those of most 
direct benefit and the address frequently being printed 
and distributed. Even a limited number of these, pre- 
sented by men able both to instruct and inspire, will 
fill subordinates' minds with the student atmosphere. 

The American Radiator Company publishes a bulletin 
distributed gratis to employees, its purpose being to 
promote a broad knowledge of the company's business, 

1 Cf. Tolman, Social Engineering, Ch. IX, for illustrations. The 
Bulletins and Annual Reports of the National Association of Corporation 
Schools, 124 W. 42d Street, New York City, are of special value in this 
connection. 



2 3 o INSTRUCTION 

and by expanding personal capacity to increase oppor- 
tunity for all members of the organization. This bulle- 
tin is by no means merely of the " ginger up " or the 
" uplift " sort into which so many promising publica- 
tions have degenerated. While it does contain articles 
making for inspiration, closer mutual interest, and good 
fellowship, it presents also much matter-of-fact instruc- 
tion. Less pretentious than such bulletins, yet still 
serving educational purposes, are the booklets, pam- 
phlets, circulars, outlines, and sermonettes, with which 
organizations here and there are informing and train- 
ing their members. Though it be the elaborate report 
of a technical investigation issued by an automobile 
manufacturer, or again only a motto, " The voice with 
the smile wins," distributed by a telephone company, 
the purpose, that of instructing subordinates by means 
of printed material, is realized. 

The National Cash Register Company utilizes trips 
as a means of educating its employees. During the 
World's Fair at St. Louis it shut down the factory for 
two weeks in order that its making and recording forces, 
two thousand two hundred in number, with a generous 
percentage of their expenses paid, might enjoy the 
unique advantages there afforded. Later the company 
sent on a European trip a party of sixteen, nine of them 
being chief officials at headquarters, five district man- 
agers, and two factory experts. Similar trips are made 
to New York, Chicago, Boston, or to manufacturing 
centers like Pittsburgh, the parties varying from half a 
dozen to twenty. Trips, of course, are only one of sev- 
eral methods employed by this progressive organization, 
but it finds these of value ; conditions are studied, view- 
points broadened, and many suggestions brought back 
for the betterment of machine and methods. 

The girls at the Plymouth Cordage Company's mill 



COMPANY SCHOOLS 231 

formed a club several years since, the members then 
numbering eight or ten. The primary purpose was 
social, but the members promptly started work in sewing, 
courses in English, Italian, and art, and so successfully 
pushed these various activities that the membership has 
increased some tenfold. Much the same result has been 
accomplished by the woman's league at Wanamaker's. 
Once a month this league holds a social evening, with 
a lecture, reading, or music, time for sociability, and 
dancing; and at other times classes are carried on for 
chorus singing, mandolin playing, physical culture, 
dancing, sewing, English, German, and French. Such 
voluntary organizations as these indicate that em- 
ployees, quite in harmony with the aims of their execu- 
tives, are anxious for self-improvement. 

The New York Edison Company maintains a school, 
this being the most serious of the various measures of 
instruction. This company offers five courses in elec- 
trical engineering, one course in accounting, and seven 
courses in salesmanship. These latter courses, held 
during working hours, are compulsory for all employees 
of the commercial department. The first-year courses 
for new employees treat of the history and development 
of electricity, including inspection trips to the central 
stations, substations, and meter- testing laboratory, 
elements of central station business getting, principles 
of individual efficiency, business letter writing, and public 
speaking. The second-year courses, open only to those 
who have completed the first-year courses, give instruc- 
tion in hygiene, health, recreation, and psychology, the 
principles of salesmanship and their relation to business 
building, and company policy and organization. Exam- 
inations are given, and satisfactory work wins a diploma. 1 

1 Outline of Educational Courses for 1913-1914, New York Edison 
Company. 



232 INSTRUCTION 

The Union Pacific Railroad offers through its Educa- 
tional Bureau various courses, such as mechanical 
engineering, signal work, transportation, traffic, main- 
tenance of way, civil engineering, agents' courses, air- 
brake course, locomotive firing, and locomotive running. 
Says General Superintendent Park : " The men take 
to the scheme — it is something they have long wanted. 
In the three months since the bureau was established 
over 500 students have been enrolled, all earnestly press- 
ing their special work to the extent that success is 
assured." * 

A beginner everywhere, perhaps, whether he be the 
newly engaged office boy or the just-promoted general 
manager, is given certain instructions as to what is 
expected. Now in reality, libraries, lectures, bulle- 
tins, trips, clubs, and schools, including variations and 
combinations of these worked out to meet particular 
needs, represent merely attempts to make these direc- 
tions more effective. 

WHAT SHALL BE TAUGHT 

But in what does this effectiveness consist? Is it 
knowledge, discipline, power, or some other of the 
numerous aims which teachers at different times have 
set for their guidance and toward which they have 
urged learners? At the outset it may be urged that 
there is nothing inherently worth while in instruction 
as an end in itself. " Man's business here," observes 
Frederic Harrison, " is to know for the sake of living, 
not to live for the sake of knowing." Of all this accu- 
mulated wisdom, chemical practice in the laboratory, office 
practice in the insurance company, buying practice in 

1 J. S. Eaton, Education for Efficiency in Railroad Service, U. S. Bureau 
of Education, Bulletin 10, 1909, 96-97. 



STANDARDIZATION 233 

the wholesale concern, man management in the selling 
organization, are not certain parts as compared with 
others particularly helpful and hence more worth know- 
ing for the sake of living? 

They are. This is clearly indicated by the fact that 
knowledge is systematized. In this process, details 
are classified and grouped under subheads, subheads 
are fitted into larger units, and at last is reared that vast 
pyramid of organized knowledge termed science. The 
winnowings of the centuries are evolved into general 
truths. Into them have been distilled myriads of facts ; 
from them may be drawn aid in solving multitudes of 
detail difficulties. The goal of instruction, therefore, 
is to teach these general truths and their application 
to concrete problems. Instruction is effective in so far 
as it does this. 

The first requirement of instruction, therefore, is that 
there be properly systematized material. Unless this 
requirement be met the teacher sinks into an im- 
parter of unrelated details, a blind leader of the blind. 
Of what worth to the apprentice are the teachings of the 
chief whose own efforts are based upon merest guess- 
work; and is not a most serious instructional obstacle 
found in the fact that as yet over vast stretches of our 
industrial system men are tramping without compass, 
the one best way having not yet been found ? 

Certain pioneer attempts have been made to remedy 
this difficulty. The work done assumes a significance 
far surpassing the apparent value of the facts discovered, 
since the result of chief importance lies in the new 
point of view furnished. The belief is centuries old 
that, in astronomy, physics, or mathematics, general 
laws are the summum bonum; only very recently in 
industry has been recognized the possibility of sup- 
planting rule-of- thumb by standardization. Frederick 



234 INSTRUCTION 

W. Taylor spent twenty-six years studying how best 
to cut metals, attacking the two questions, at what cut- 
ting depth shall the lathe be run, and at what speed shall 
it be set, and in some 30,000 to 40,000 experiments he 
cut into chips with the experimental tools more than 
800,000 pounds of steel and iron. 1 Frank B. Gilbreth 
studied the motions made by bricklayers in getting a 
brick from where the tenders left it until it was mortared 
into the wall, devised various schemes, such as having 
the bricks brought to the mason in a different way than 
usual, placing them in a somewhat more convenient 
position, arranging the scaffold in an improved manner, 
by means of which the number of motions required was 
cut down from eighteen to four and one half. 2 The 
editor of Industrial Engineering, interested in this new 
science of motion study, developed an arrangement of 
materials and sequence of motion through which the 
girls folding and sealing letters in his office increased 
their output four times. 3 

A Chicago real estate dealer in his correspondence 
similarly worked toward standardization. Through care- 
ful analysis of inquiries he was enabled to classify 
them and draw up a series of form letters which simpli- 
fied his work without loss in effectiveness. A Detroit 
advertiser for several years has so carefully keyed his 
advertising and recorded the inquiries received that he 
is now able to estimate with fair accuracy the " pull " 
of his different copy. 4 The Curtis Publishing Company 
during the past three years reduced its stenographic cost 
from $7.69 to $2.58 per thousand square inches of type- 
written matter, at the same time advancing wages from 
$9 to $11 per week; in other words, increasing the de- 

1 Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management, 105-106. 

8 Gilbreth, Motion Study, 88. See also chart, 107. 

*Op. cit., xiv. * Shryer, Analytical Advertising. 



SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 235 

partment's efficiency, based upon these two tests, by 
about two hundred per cent. 1 

But the Curtis Publishing Company, in common 
with these other concerns mentioned, recognized the 
necessity of basing effort upon systematized material. 
The management studied the methods in practice, ana- 
lyzed and classified them, eliminated the faults which 
heretofore had been either unobserved or deliberately 
neglected, and embodied the approved methods and 
directions in textbook form. A school was instituted 
in which, with these textbooks as a basis, the routine 
of the office was explained in detail. Every mechanical 
operation, the insertion of a sheet of paper in a type- 
writer, the arrangement of the desk drawer, even such 
elementary operations as making erasures, ruling lines in 
ink, and the making of figures, has been studied, analyzed, 
and the one best way discovered that it may be prac- 
ticed by every office worker. 

These examples, indicating how industrial and com- 
mercial concerns in the most painstaking way have 
developed a standard practice, emphasize a point of 
view valuable to every executive. The one best way, it 
is true, is known accurately only in the most limited 
fields, yet its spirit at least should permeate all attempts 
at leadership. Especially is this true of all great popular 
movements, in the initial stages of which there is almost 
certain to be more heat than light. Brass bands, ream 
upon ream of speeches, the parade, and the banquet 
proclaim that salvation, figuratively speaking, is at 
hand. It is the task of the wise leader to see that out 
of the confusion after a time emerge certain central 
truths, a more or less accurate standard practice. The 
movement then becomes effective, teachable. The first 
requirement of instruction has been met. 

1 System, October, 1913, 390-397. 



236 INSTRUCTION 



EFFECTIVE TEACHING 

The matter to be taught having been properly pre- 
pared, the point of view now shifts toward the learner. 
How may he best apprehend these general principles 
and become able to use them with effectiveness? By 
experiencing their growth within his own mind, a process 
analogous to their original development. There are 
no mysterious short cuts to knowledge. The mind to 
be taught must retrace the same path by which the gen- 
eralization was reached, even though under skilled 
instruction the pace is immensely accelerated. This 
necessity gives to teaching three main processes which 
may now receive brief consideration. 1 

i. The Acquiring of Details. — A new idea creates in 
the mind very much the same impression as does the 
stranger arriving at the lawn party — there is need for 
mutual adjustment. Now this adjustment is more 
rapid if in teaching one proceeds from the known to the 
unknown, and, aided by the self-activity of the learner, 
welds this new to the old. By calling up in his mind 
all the related ideas possible a foundation is prepared 
for the new material. By giving him an aim, a concrete, 
definite, simple, short, and attractive statement of what 
is to be undertaken, he will be enlisted in the building 
process. The material of instruction having been 
gathered, it is now to be provided as needed by the 
teacher or demonstrator, the learners in this case being 
considered as interested onlookers; or perhaps this 
material is presented by the printed page, it fulfilling 
the function of a text ; or in part it may come from the 
learners themselves, stimulated and directed by the 

1 This view is based upon the well-known Herbartian Formal Steps. 
For an illuminating discussion sec McMurry, Method of the Recitation, 
especially Chs. vi-ix. 



METHODS OF TEACHING 237 

instructor. The process in any case is one of transferring 
mental materials. As a result of it, through questions, 
vivid pictures, repetitions, and reviews, indelible images 
become stamped upon the mind. The details are ac- 
quired. 

2. The Development of Generalizations. — Important 
as details are, their real function is to serve as crude 
materials for the construction of general truths. It 
is these general truths which give freedom and impetus 
to thought and adequate means for its expression; 
which signify a good classification of one's knowledge, 
an organization of thought which renders facts easily 
retained, readily surveyed, and quickly produced in the 
moment of need; and which provide an apperceiving 
mass, able to assimilate new knowledge easily and quickly, 
a chart and compass with which the thinker steers 
through confused regions without losing his bearings. 
The learning process is poorly organized which stops 
short of these. 

The process of induction rests upon a comparison of 
different bits of concrete data, the noting of recurring 
phenomena, and the stating of these as generalizations. 
The full triumph of science demands that these general- 
izations be all-embracing, that a systematized universe 
be set forth in shorthand symbols. Yet any approach 
to this ideal involves a certain simplification, in which, 
from our present relative point of view, success is met 
because details are handled in packages. 

5. The Application to Concrete Problems. — The learn- 
ing process is not complete until the knowledge gained 
becomes usable in practice. Generalizations constitute 
the theory, but no real antagonism exists between theory 
and practice, the two in reality being intimate co-workers, 
— at bottom, only different phases of the same thing. 
Hence induction and deduction are as normally insep- 



23* INSTRUCTION 

arable as systole and diastole. Concrete experiences 
are builded into general notions, general notions in turn 
are applied to new concretes. 

It is in this last step particularly that public educa- 
tion is lamentably weak. Its students possess much 
theory, but flounder in the realm of actuality. They 
discern little connection between the principles taught 
in school and the practical difficulties they face ; in many 
instances the break between school life and real life being 
never bridged. 

But in this respect the instruction furnished by 
department store manager, railroad executive, or politi- 
cal leader is particularly strong. Its details are usually 
poorly presented, its general notions are apt to be unde- 
veloped and hazily held, yet every link in the chain has 
been rigorously tested out in practice. To a compara- 
tively high degree the general notions held by practical 
men are made to do service. 

RESULTS OF INSTRUCTION 

We have now completed our brief survey of the three 
steps in instruction. It has been pointed out that details 
must first be acquired, that from these, general principles 
are to be constructed, and that in the application of such 
principles knowledge becomes power. It now remains 
to consider, in conclusion, three general results which 
may accrue to the executive through his use of the in- 
struction policy. These may be set forth as follows : 

i. Definite Procedure. — From the stock of assembled 
knowledge issues guidance. The material, in organized 
and usable form, reposes in the learner's brain as a 
director of action, a measure of accomplishment. The 
instructed individual is transformed into an effective 
workman. 



BENEFITS GAINED 239 

In its wider aspects, moreover, instruction creates a 
new and larger brain. Its net is wide flung ; from indi- 
vidual workmen, official, and competitor, from obser- 
vation, printed page, and experiment, is accumulated 
a rich spoil. Adapted, it becomes the essence of organ- 
ization, the directive agent in industry, business, or 
social life. 

2. Rapid Development. — It is quite essential that in 
order to gain any well-rounded knowledge concerning 
his organization, the novice should begin at the bottom. 
The recognition of this fact is responsible for such in- 
stances as young Ward, the millionaire baker's son, driv- 
ing a delivery wagon, and young Vanderbilt, clad in 
overalls, working in the railroad shops; contact with 
conditions at first hand gives the " feel " and point of view. 

It is equally true that the men most valuable to an 
organization are at the top. The general manager out- 
weighs a score perhaps of district managers, and the 
ability of the chief executive himself may not exist in 
the combined capacities of half a hundred shipping 
clerks. Since men should begin at the bottom yet be- 
come more valuable as they near the top, the practical 
thing is to accelerate the process, if possible. 

Instruction accomplishes this. In the public school, 
a child in twelve years imbibes a social inheritance which 
the race has constructed only in hundreds of thousands ; 
the college graduate, the heir of all the ages, in sixteen 
years has traversed in great thought strides the toilsome 
journey from cave man to contemporary. Instruction 
in the railroad, factory, bank, or insurance office simi- 
larly will accelerate progress for the amateur who would 
be vice president. Mastering details, weaving them 
into general principles, and with these solving new prob- 
lems, under skilled instruction he travels through the 
organization as with seven-league boots. 



240 INSTRUCTION 

j. Tentative Attitudes. — Instruction is based upon 
evidence ; its aim is merely to see details as they are 
and from them to deduce principles which when applied 
will work. But this point of view, simple as it may seem 
when stated, removes from instruction, and from organ- 
izations making use of any instruction worthy of that 
name, the danger of becoming static. Its appeal to 
intelligence promotes progress and insures toleration. 
It has provided a method by which difficulties are solved 
through the discovery of truth, a means through which, 
because open to all, individual initiative is secured. 

The discussion of the various methods by which 
men are motivated we may now conclude. It has been 
shown that these methods embrace a wide variety of 
appeals, ranging from the elusive force of personality 
to the matter-of-fact system of instruction. These 
appeals, taken singly or in combination, leave nothing 
in our instincts, emotions, or intellect which they cannot 
stir. It is for the executive, a practicing psychologist, 
to select and use them as he will, to become, in other 
words, an artist playing upon the strings of human 
motive. 

EXERCISES 

i. Why are theorists and practical men so often mutually 
antagonized? What indications that such antagonism is lessen- 
ing? 

2. In some process now unsystematized, illustrate how stand- 
ardization might be brought about. 

3. Should subordinates be given general or specific directions? 

4. What reasons behind the movement for schools in factories 
and commercial houses? 

5. Is it advisable for business men to discuss their policies in 
trade magazines? 

6. Should a young man dependent upon his own efforts for 
support pursue a liberal-culture college course? 

7. Discuss and illustrate the following maxims of teaching: 
the concrete before the abstract ; facts before definitions or prin- 



EXERCISES AND READINGS 241 

ciples; processes before rules; from the particular to the gen- 
eral; from the simple to the complex; from the known to the 
related unknown. 

READINGS 

McMurry, Method of the Recitation. 

Annual Report (latest), National Association of Corporation 
Schools. 



PART III: LIMITS UPON THE 
EXECUTIVE 



CHAPTER XX 

Interest and Apathy 

" For many are called, but few chosen." 

— Matthew xxii. 14. 

The average subordinate is by no means a mere pup- 
pet for another's deft manipulation. He has rights and 
claims. And the executive who would control him 
through mysterious passes, counterfeit rewards, or 
blaring command, — who would, in short, use him as a tool 
in getting something for nothing, — wins no lasting power, 
but usually runs quickly amuck. It is not alone in 
revolution that the driven press back upon the driver. 
This fact emphasizes the general truth to be considered 
in Part III, that in the control of men executives are 
always under restrictions. The first of these to be con- 
sidered, the subject of the present chapter, is apathy; 
the subordinates are not interested. 

No one can possibly be interested in everything. 
His consciousness is bombarded by a multiplicity of 
stimuli ; in fact, persistently besieged by claimants for 
attention. To grant audience to each would entail 
complete distraction, and produce a mind fit only for 
the madhouse. Hence to live the mental life at all, 
consciousness, as an efficient executive, is forced to be- 
come a selective agent, evaluating the incoming stimuli 
on the basis of their relative importance. In this rank- 

24s 



246 INTEREST AND APATHY 

ing process, certain of them are suppressed; others 
evaluated more highly, receive attention. 

Every one from his own experience knows how atten- 
tion operates. Out of what seem several simultaneously 
possible objects or trains of thought, the mind takes 
possession of one, withdraws from others in order to 
deal effectively with it, focalizes and concentrates upon 
it, holds it in clear and vivid form. The other items of 
the outward order, millions of them, though present to 
the senses, never properly enter into experience. Be- 
cause they hold no interest, they are screened out and 
their appeal by no chance has force. 1 

INTEREST AND THE EXECUTIVE 

Since the stimulus unattended never takes possession 
of consciousness, to the executive non-interest on the 
part of his subordinates is fatal. The efficacy of the 
foregoing methods of stimulation and control depends upon 
the interest they hold in the minds of followers. Person- 
ality, emulation, rewards, instruction, all of them have 
a power — if the mind attends to them. If not, they 
are sounding brass. 

Hence arises the value of what may be termed the 
psychological moment — the stimulus then falls upon a 
peculiarly receptive consciousness. " When I used to 
say as I rode through the lines in the heat of battle," 
declared Napoleon, " ' Unfurl your flags, the moment 
has come,' the French soldiers simply shook with eager- 
ness." This same sense of the psychological moment 
impelled Mohammed to receive his new revelations always 

1 "This whole function of conceiving, of fixing, and holding fast to 
meanings," says James, "has no significance apart from the fact that 
the conceiver is a creature with partial purposes and private ends." 
Prin. of Psy., I, 482. Cf. 402-404. 



WHEN INTEREST WAXES 247 

at such opportune time, Moody to offer a prayer just be- 
fore the vote was taken in a wrangling Sunday-School 
Convention, the manager to extend promotion on the 
subordinate's birthday or to spread the message of 
cooperation on pay day, Caesar to move amid political 
plans and intrigues eighteen years before heading an 
army, and Pitt, early in his career, to refuse the coveted 
prime ministership tendered him because " the fruit 
was not yet ripe." 

If the moment is propitious, i.e. if interest can be en- 
listed readily, it is often given to small men to wield 
large powers. During the " great fear " in France, the 
cry, " The brigands are coming " enabled nameless men 
to head battalions of their own marshaling. The 
French Revolution was led by mediocrity. 1 The 
reawakening of patriotism which swept the country 
after the Agadir crisis furnished the setting for a domi- 
nant personality, President Poincare, just as the war 
spirit later reared new pinnacles of power in Joffre, von 
Hindenburg, Grand Duke Nicholas, and the Kaiser. 
Similarly, Pitt, not yet twenty-five, once wielded in 
England a power such as no other minister had since the 
Revolution, supported, as Lord Rosebery observes, 2 
on the tidal wave of one of those great convulsions of 
feeling which in Great Britain express and relieve pent-up 

1 Desmoulins, a hitherto unknown newspaper correspondent, by 
mounting a wine table in the Palais-Royal gardens and haranguing the 
crowd concerning the dismissal of Necker, initiated an impulse of vast 
import on that 12th of July. Stanislas Maillard, appearing in the 
Place de la Greve just as a body of some five, hundred women, wrought up 
to a state of frenzy over their wrongs, many of them starving and all 
desirous that some one should be punished, were about to hang an unfor- 
tunate abbe, by seizing a drum, and shouting " A Versailles ! " led the 
entire rabble with loud shouts on the road to Louis' palace. In the same 
way the headstrong enthusiasm of the revolutionary recruits, later mar- 
shaled by Dumouriez, was the real cause of his victories. 

2 William Pitt, 57-58. 



248 INTEREST AND APATHY 

national sentiment. Our own country in 1896 wit- 
nessed an interesting illustration of the same sort. A 
curious crisis confronted the Democratic party ; successful 
four years before, its delegates were now divided, anxious, 
and in doubt — the proper setting for a conqueror. 
When Bryan illumined the darkness, " You shall not 
crucify humanity upon a cross of gold," it was as if 
an oracle had appeared. The carnival of materialism 
then ended, and the revivalist had come to his own. 

How interpret these great movements of waxing 
interest? The answer, perhaps, is to be found in the 
nature of interest itself. It represents the dynamic 
phase of consciousness, the outward, projective aspect 
of mind, the organizing activity par excellence. Now 
this type of activity is especially emphasized when habit 
becomes inadequate to secure adaptation. Hence in 
periods of transition, witnessing as they do the break- 
down of the old before the newly developing is competent 
to guide, what was heretofore in the custody of habit is 
taken in charge by interest. When Luther nailed up 
his theses, to take a most prominent single instance in 
the movement, the religious currents were soon thrown 
from their smooth channels ; a period of questioning, 
denunciation, and experiment ensued. Europe for 
decades seethed with religious interest. All transitional 
periods, be they civil wars, democratic movements, or 
labor upheavals, illustrate.the same tendency. The wax- 
ing and waning of interest varies directly with the need 
for new adaptations. 

A period of change thus provides unique opportunity 
for the guiding hand. Witness the power wielded by 
Lincoln during the Civil War, the authority of the relief 
committee's head while the flood is on, the repudiation 
for the time being of democratic control as the trade- 
unionists engage in strikes. The dazzling figures of 



PERIODS OF CHANGE 249 

history, — Napoleon, Caesar, Bismarck, Alexander, Gari- 
baldi, Washington, — are men of transitional eras. 

Is it likely that the era of change has passed, that, 
humanity floating without jar on the smooth currents 
of habit, the power of leaders is to sutler eclipse ? Pos- 
sibly the world will never again witness the climactic 
scenes of nation making and reformation and democra- 
tization. Social control steadily becomes more stabilized ; 
a sounder core of directive matter is developed in the 
individual brain. Yet change in itself has not ceased. 
Even though, like a rotating wheel, the striving millions 
pursue the same cycle of satisfaction, cumulative by- 
products sufficient to cause social change are left behind. 
Nor does each generation reproduce accurately the 
copies set by its ancestors, another source of gradual 
change. Especially, however, do such fundamental stim- 
uli as growth of population, accumulation of wealth, 
migration, innovation, cross-fertilization of cultures, 
interaction of groups, conjugation of societies, and al- 
teration of environment throw new strains upon the 
social order and require far-reaching adjustments. 1 
Scarce an executive, be he vice president of a trust 
company or humble foreman of a grading gang, manages 
an organization not profoundly in the grip of one or 
more of these molding forces. And these forces, it is 
safe to say, will abide for an immeasurably long time. 

SECURING INTEREST 

The problem of maintaining interest within an organ- 
ization, however practical the need, is elusive when one 
considers methodology. 2 But in general it may be 

1 Ross, Found, of Soc, Ch. VIII. 

2 Angell declares, "When we seek to discover what attributes an 
object must possess in order to be interesting, we are forced back at once 
upon uninstructive generalities." Psychology, 364. 



250 INTEREST AND APATHY 

said that a person is interested in whatever seems to afford 
self-realization. This, of course, is based upon a broad 
conception of what constitutes self. " In its widest 
possible sense," says James, 1 " a man's self is the sum 
total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his 
psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his 
wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation 
and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and bank 
account. All these things give him the same emotions. 
If they wax and prosper, he feels triumphant ; if they 
dwindle and die away, he feels cast down, — not neces- 
sarily in the same degree for each thing, but in much the 
same way for all." According to this view of person- 
ality, and it is justified by analysis, self-realization be- 
comes comprehensive. Multitudes of things are inter- 
twined with self-feeling ; and self-feeling entails interest. 

Human nature as a whole accepts certain fundamentals 
as interesting, basic appeals, therefore, being possible 
among all peoples. At the same time, races and classes 
vary somewhat in the means chosen for self-realization 
and the relative emphasis placed upon these. The 
negro's attention is given to parade and show ; gold- 
headed canes, brass bands, the swagger style, to him 
represent the humanly desirable. In a municipal cam- 
paign, the ears of the " faithful " prick up at hints of 
booty, the sober citizen pays heed to arguments drawn 
from tax sheets. Because of these variations — and 
they commonly prevail among groups, nay, even among 
individuals and in the same individual at different 
times — choosing the successful appeal requires insight. 

In the foregoing chapters a wide range of appeals has 
been considered ; from personality to instruction, the 
various means have been analyzed through which some 
particular group might elect to realize itself. The 

1 Prin. of Psy., I, 291-292. 



RESHAPING SUBORDINATES 251 

policy of the executive in making use of these appeals 
may be indicated by the conduct of Alexander at Issus. 
He rode down the line, to the Macedonians naming 
their battle fields and victories, to the Greeks speaking 
of another Darius overthrown by their forefathers at 
Marathon, selecting the particular appeal to nerve each 
phalanx in turn. Similarly Hannibal before Zama prom- 
ised booty and pay to the mercenaries drawn from many 
lands of Europe, bade his Italians remember the glory 
of their former victories under his banner, reminded the 
Carthaginians of their ancestors and their wives and 
children. Hannibal, too, was a man of insight. 

To a certain extent, followers can be reshaped so they 
will respond favorably to given appeals. Since human 
nature is plastic, not static, to secure the response 
desired time only in many cases is necessary. It is 
merely a matter of months before the newly landed 
peasant from Slavonia will accept the slogan, " Join the 
union ! " The Philippine jungle men, whose delight 
once was only in the shady trees near the road bed, were 
in due season strenuously laying rails for the " green 
papers " they first ignored. Subjected to influences 
long continued, the child who might have been an artist 
becomes a prosperous merchant, a coal heaver, or a pick- 
pocket. Imbibed from the milieu are the values we 
all accept, social products. The stimulus of personality, 
suggestion, discipline, and so on, as wielded by an 
executive, may constitute environment only to a limited 
degree, but in their whetting of interests they possess 
the power to form habits — and habits once fixed often 
find us reacting to interests heretofore alien to our being. 
The executive, for purposes of interest, has reshaped 
his subordinates. 

In this reshaping process, much depends upon the 
inherent nature of that which is to be impressed. Since 



252 INTEREST AND APATHY 

the mind exercises a selective influence upon the numer- 
ous claimants for attention, some ideas readily fade, 
disintegrate; others, however, are prepotent, able to 
dominate consciousness. What of these? In general, 
they represent objects of passion, appetite, or emotion, 
i.e. instinctive reactions; feelings of pleasure or pain; 
ideas to whose reaction we have grown accustomed by 
habit; or ideas of things present or near in time and 
space. As compared with such objects, in the struggle 
to possess consciousness all far-off considerations, un- 
accustomed reasons, and motives alien to the instincts 
normally are dispossessed. They lack impulsive power 
and they prevail, when they ever do prevail, with effort. 1 

Some applications possibly may render the import 
of these principles clearer. The unseen normally has 
less power over attention than tactile impressions, such 
as comfort of clothing, warmth of room. But when 
to neglect of this unseen once was linked the far more 
pungent of impressions, the torments of hell fire, thou- 
sands set out as crusaders; daily sufferings, unusually 
severe though they were, succumbed before the vivid 
phrase of the herald, " Help us, Holy Sepulchre ! " 

The oft-recurring in general is able to discount the 

1 James, Prin. of Psy., II, 536. These qualities Professor James, 
when considering the persistence of an idea even though contradicted, 
has outlined somewhat more fully as follows : 

"(1) Coerciveness over attention, or the mere power to possess con- 
sciousness : then follow — 

"(2) Liveliness, or sensible pungency, especially in the way of excit- 
ing pleasure or pain. 

" (3) Stimulating effect upon the will, i.e. capacity to arouse active 
impulses, the more instinctive the better; 

"(4) Emotional interest, as object of love, dread, admiration, de- 
sire, etc. ; 

"(5) Congruity with certain favorite forms of contemplation, — 
unity, simplicity, permanence, and the like; 

"(6) Independence of other causes, and its own causal importance. 

"These characters run into each other." Ibid., 300. 



STRONG APPEALS 253 

unusual; yet this unusual at times possesses greater 
motivation than a whole series of the ordinaries. See 
with what persistence is remembered the assassination 
of Lincoln, the breaking of the bank at Monte Carlo, 
the drowning of the boy who ran away from Sunday 
School to fish, the confession of the conscience-stricken 
clerk, the impudent machinist hurled down stairs by 
the " old man." The unusual, if exceptional, gains in 
impressiveness. 

Again, the real in toto often possesses less power than 
as a sign. The laconic command frequently is more 
impressive in what it leaves out than in what it con- 
tains. And just as the cartoonist with a few clever 
strokes sets a Mexican revolution before us, so a scrawled 
autograph, an image-stirring phrase, a dramatic coup, 
at times multiplies its power manyfold. The imagina- 
tion is ever ready to leap from trifles to encompass great 
measures ; and even reasoning itself, if of high order, is 
a dropping out of steps and a playing with signs. The 
executive may make the little do service for the much. 

In any case, should these various aspects of interest 
coalesce, their effect is heightened. Saladin, for in- 
stance, by promises of treasure, spirited exhortations 
on courage, and tales of the monstrous barbarities in- 
flicted by the Franks upon the vanquished, induced his 
troops, in the face of hunger and incessant assaults, to 
hold out for seventy-five days. Mohammed, in his 
famous conquests, united in one effective appeal the 
grandest scheme of a conqueror, the lust of a freebooter, 
and the sanctified zeal of an apostle. The Conqueror 
of Mexico played first on the religious sentiments of 
his followers, then on their pride as Spaniards, and last 
and always on their itch for gold. Martin Van Buren 
— and Jefferson as well — based his political power 
on a curious but potent mixture of philosophy, states- 



254 INTEREST AND APATHY 

manship, and electioneering. And the pure gospel of the 
Nazarene was vulgarized, though at the same time made 
popular, by combining with its lofty idealism crude 
rewards and punishments and enough illusion to make 
it go. The summation of tensions thus secured, even 
were each appeal in itself weak, at last overcomes 
resistance; a nervous discharge ensues and energy is 
released. 

MAINTAINING INTEREST 

The above will perhaps suffice to indicate, on the basis 
of the principle given, how in concrete situations inter- 
est may be secured. It now remains to consider the 
means by which, when once secured, it may be main- 
tained. 

i. Its Current should be Concentrated. — Our con- 
sciousness, as has been pointed out by Royce, constantly 
tends to the minimum of complexity and the maximum 
of definiteness. If things have more than a certain 
complexity, either our attention falters, allowing the 
whole mass to go by without discrimination; or we 
yield to the desire to believe this complexity does not 
exist, our minds catching at the slightest excuse to postu- 
late regularity and simplicity. 

Whoever would hold attention should work in harmony 
with this tendency of the mind. The public speaker 
who opens with " There are just two points we need 
to consider," grips attention from the first; the one 
who rises to make " a few general remarks " lulls his 
hearers' alertness, for they have been bored before. 
The wise leader accordingly concentrates attention upon 
one problem at a time — the general manager " boils 
down " his directions ; the advertiser hammers home 
one argument each issue, leaving others for " a later 
message " ; the politician selects " paramount " issues. 



DISTRACTIONS 255 

Such clearness and simplicity do not overload interest, 
but maintain it to the end. 

2. Distractions should he Eliminated. — The mind, 
as was pointed out above, is selective in its interests ; 
ignoring some ideas, admitting though minimizing some, 
magnifying others, it possesses perspective. But this 
is far from saying that the selections of interest normally 
coincide with the requirements of our daily tasks. The 
office boy looks at the special delivery letter, but does 
it rouse impulses able to contend with the luring sound 
of the five o'clock bell? Even the executive himself, 
seated at work-piled desk, dreams for a moment of the 
griddle cakes served that morning or perchance quite 
ignores a $10,000 contract when the automobile tire 
explodes outside, — present-day requirements subju- 
gated to the claims of racial instincts. 

Every means, therefore, by which interest and task 
can be brought into harmony should be employed for 
whatever it may be worth. Removing distractions is 
one of these. Its worst form is merely noise; loco- 
motive whistles, elevated trains, automobile horns, street 
cars, heavy trucks, old-clothes men, fruit venders, 
newsboys, and construction gangs produce a roar in the 
street outside, which floating into office or factory 
and adding itself to the ring of telephones and call 
bells, click of typewriters, slam of doors, pound of 
machinery, and sounds of dictation, conversation, and 
footsteps, din the ears incessantly. Rows of callers, 
unexpected interruptions, uncertainties, suspicions, fur- 
ther increase the strain upon attention. The executive, 
and his subordinates too, beset by these foes of concen- 
tration, plod along with only a fraction of their full 
powers doing service, exhausted at night, not because 
of their achievement, but because of the expenditure of 
energy in resisting distractions. 



256 INTEREST AND APATHY 

These, however, to a great extent can be eliminated. 
Anti-noise crusades in the municipality, and in each 
establishment a careful running of partitions, muffling 
telephone and call bells, using rubber matting and 
rubber heels, deadening walls and floors, the removal of 
plant or office to quiet location, exalting quietness as an 
ideal, and providing a working schedule according to 
which one task at a time is taken up and dispatched, 
all are means by which, distracting influences reduced 
to a minimum, interest may more easily hold to the 
task at hand. It is a practical program which any 
executive bent upon efficiency may well foster. 

3. Interest involves Successive Action and Reaction. 
■ — Interest is a matter of pulsations, of ebb and flow, 
there being no such thing as continuous voluntary 
attention. The nearest approach to it, that which is 
commonly termed continuous attention, in fact, consists 
solely in a succession of attempts to hold the topic in 
consciousness, the mind occupying itself first with one 
phase, then with another, until, should the subject be 
congenial, hours may pass with interest still engaged. 1 

The astute auctioneer takes account of this ebb and 
flow as he urges for higher bids ; 2 baseball managers 

1 James, op. cit., I, 420-421. 

2 Note how Joseph P. Day, the most successful of real estate auc- 
tioneers, in the following stenographic report of a sale, observes this law 
of action and reaction. After commenting favorably upon the property, 
he asks, "How much am I bid?" 

"Fifty thousand dollars? Oh, no, thirty thousand, thirty thousand 
dollars — thirty-five thousand — forty thousand. That is where it 
should have started. Forty thousand — forty-one thousand — forty- 
two — forty-four — fifty thousand dollars ! That is where you should 
have begun to bid. Fifty-one, one, one, one — fifty-two — three — 
four — five — six — seven — eight — nine — sixty thousand dollars. 

"That last man is a very cautious person. Sixty-two thousand 
dollars. [Bidding rises, with several more reaction periods, to eighty 
thousand.] It is going, the third and last call, at eighty thousand. 

"Look here, Mr. Shanley, you have the reputation of being one of 



EBB AND FLOW OF INTEREST 257 

have learned that hard-driven teams may be expected 
to " slump," that in a crucial series the machine over- 
keyed is liable at any crisis to " crack " ; politicians 
find that periods of popular excitement normally are 
followed by periods of lassitude, hence after a vigorous 
agitation the wise ones return to country places for the 
" much-needed vacation" or go on some far hunting 
expedition. The process apparently is dilatory; but 
as in heart beat systole cannot be separated from diastole, 
so through action and reaction interest is maintained. 
Variety or change, a commonly used expedient, too 
frequently involves aimlessness; interest is held but 
nothing definite is accomplished. This defect is over- 
come by exhibiting in turn various phases of the same 
topic. Chancellor Lloyd George, no doubt, seeks to 
realize in England but one principle, democracy; yet 
the interesting chancellor is said to have a talent for 
stirring up things, apparently possessed by no other 
man in British politics. William Jennings Bryan very 
likely has drawn more people into his audiences than any 
other man in all history; free silver, anti-imperialism, 
guarantee of bank deposits, government ownership, 
all have been successively embraced in his repertoire. 
Underneath these, however, the safeguarding of the many 
against the encroachments of the few seems through the 
years to have been the sole issue of the perennial Bryan. 

the best restaurant men in New York. You know what the value of 
this property will be, backed by your judgment in the restaurant business. 
Eighty thousand dollars is the price. Are you going to lose your repu- 
tation as a man of good judgment? 

"Mr. Shanley has good judgment. Eighty-five thousand dollars. 
[Bidding continues.] Sold! Sold to Shanley Brothers at ninety-six 
thousand dollars." 

Had Mr. Day vigorously forced the bidding without pause, the sell- 
ing price probably would not have gone higher than seventy thousand. 
That it went to ninety-six shows how Mr. Day capitalized a psychological 
principle. 

S 



258 INTEREST AND APATHY 

When the successive objects of attention are bound to- 
gether in rational sequence, interest is maintained and 
the central topic, branching and budding in the mind, 
bears a rich fruitage. 

APATHY 

Apathy is the obverse of interest, the bog into which 
those, lost to the narrow path of attention, will wander. 
Apathy represents the indifferent, lethargic phase of 
life; interest, the dynamic, propulsive phase. Yet 
between them is a broad twilight zone, the territory 
shading from dazzling day to darkest night, in which all 
organizations now labor. Their effectiveness, depending 
both upon the relative position they now hold and the 
direction in which they tend, affords opportunity for 
the executive's skill. He would have his organization 
approach interest and quit apathy, and fortunately 
this is not impossible. 

EXERCISES 

i. Should an executive enforce systematic rest periods? 
Maintain a lunch room? 

2. Which consumes more energy, what one does or what he 
resists doing in order to concentrate? 

3. Illustrate the operation in specific cases of the various causes 
of change. (See page 249.) 

4. Harmonize the opposing claims, "The times produce the 
leaders needed," and " Leaders shape the times." 

5. Show how the victory of the Japanese over the Russians was 
influenced by the previous knowledge each had of the other. 

6. Analyze the elements in the appeal of a politician, an adver- 
tiser, a preacher, and a labor organizer. Illustrate successful 
appeal. Ill-chosen appeal. 

READINGS 

James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology, Chs. X, XI, XIV. 



CHAPTER XXI 

The Arousing of Opposition 

"The world ever loves to charge those as mad who, in devo- 
tion to a great cause, exceed its cold standard of moderation." 

— William Ware. 

Apathy is frequently followed by opposition. The 
organization, no longer content with passivity, in a 
more positive way would limit its chief by bringing 
adverse pressure to bear upon him. Indifference is 
exchanged for constraint. This constraint may be 
due to friendly rivalry, contrary suggestion, or instinc- 
tive hostility, but its most prolific source is what may be 
rather broadly termed a sense of difference. 

Every one knows what this sense of difference is like, 
the feeling that somehow the other person is out of 
touch. In every organization, due to association and 
cooperation, the interplay of suggestion, sympathy, 
common ideals, and the like, certain similarities are 
developed in our group to which the outsider is unmis- 
takably alien. Perpetuated by habit, these similarities 
come to take on binding force. The old organization 
is overgrown with conservatism, and the guiding rule of 
its members is what has been done before. 

But every organization, necessarily so, as has been 
shown, is in the grip of change and must continually 
make new adjustments. The innovator, be he political 
reformer with a new justice or a department manager 
yearning for greater efficiency, urges, even forces, for- 

259 



2 6o THE AROUSING OF OPPOSITION 

ward his new plan. What characteristic effects upon 
the group members does this entail? 

They are Pained. — " One of the greatest pains to 
human nature," says Bagehot, 1 " is the pain of a new 
idea. It is, as common people say, so i upsetting ' ; it 
makes you think that, after all, your favourite notions 
may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded ; it is 
certain that till now there was no place allotted in your 
mind to the new and startling inhabitant, and now that 
it has conquered an entrance, you do not at once see which 
of your old ideas it will or will not turn out, with which 
of them it can be reconciled, and with which it is at 
essential enmity. Naturally, therefore, common men 
hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill 
treat the original man who brings it." This is not to 
be wondered at. A carpenter with hammer and saw, 
in the opinion of its former owner devastating the old 
mansion, is yet not more ruthless than this new idea 
at work upon the mental furbishings of the past. Its 
havoc is like unto physical injury. 

They are Alarmed. — They see here an attempt to 
set at naught the group habits, these being their most 
precious conserving agency, the social cement which 
holds each man to an allotted task within his profession 
and his class, the enormous flywheel which alone 
insures uniformity and regularity. For these habits 
are based upon what has, to all appearances, been done 
safely many times. Security, apparently, is ever on 
the side of the backward look. 

The innovator would walk the hitherto untrodden 
path, a venture fraught with danger not only to himself, 
but to those with whom he lives. He offers, even urges, 
uncertainty and dread . Is this necessarily so ? Safe inno- 
vation, the accurate positing of oneself into the unknown, 

1 Physics and Politics, 163-164. 



CRANK OR GENIUS? 261 

depends upon knowledge and foresight. Until promised 
land shall have become as accurately plotted as ancestral 
fields, the new will continue synonymous with the in- 
secure ; and such wisdom, it is safe to say, will not be 
brought about in our time. 

They are Repelled. — Their reigning set of values the 
group believes to be violated. These may be economic 
values, threatened by the mining promoter, the stock 
jobber, the spendthrift, the burglar. Or political values 
may be brought to the fore, jeopardized by the " bag 
man," the demagogue, the lobbyist, the " boss." Or 
again it may be (Esthetic values, trampled upon by the 
boor, the newly rich, the artist freak, the gaudy fash- 
ioned. Or ethical values, perhance, are endangered by 
the franchise getter who tenders two hundred thousand 
for the new church edifice, the corporation lawyer with 
legislative position, the contractor on the board of edu- 
cation, the wine-bibber in the cabinet. These men, 
no doubt, are extreme examples, and it may seem not 
difficult, perhaps, for groups to set their faces as flint 
against them. Yet similarly stoned they the prophets. 
It is the man now a misfit, good or bad, who repels his 
fellow group members, the future alone being able to 
rank him definitely fool or genius. 

About its innovator, this misfit who causes pain, 
alarm, and repulsion, his organization would throw its 
noose. Its repression, indicated by coldness, criticism, 
withholding funds , denunciation, ridicule, contempt, hatred, 
in fact, if considered necessary, by the use of every device 
of social control, bears in upon him. The concrete pro- 
cess is illustrated in all biographies and set forth in every 
daily paper. 

Having examined its causes, we turn now to the second 
part of our inquiry, how high shall this opposition mount. 
Two factors are here involved, one being the width of 



262 THE AROUSING OF OPPOSITION 

variation which it is sought to impose. Should the immi- 
gration question, for example, be under discussion, the 
legislator who advocated a stricter disease test would 
naturally arouse less opposition than he who would refuse 
entrance to any alien whatever. Analyzing this factor, 
the width of variation, as it appears in practice, we find 
it normally represented by three different elements. 

First, the Speed Element. — The reforming Emperor 
Joseph II of Austria, a zealot penetrated by eighteenth- 
century ideas as to the duties of an absolute monarch, 
began to carry out his measures in a fearless and almost 
revolutionary spirit. He ran new district lines through 
his domain irrespective of the various nationalities, 
refused to be crowned king of Hungary, would not sum- 
mon the Hungarian diet, and proclaimed German as the 
official language. Among other reforms, he abolished 
serfdom, established common tribunals, softened the 
penal code, issues new codes based on the principle that 
all citizens are equal before the law, transferred the 
censorship of books from the clergy to laymen of liberal 
sympathies, granted complete freedom to the press, 
and issued an edict of toleration, guaranteeing freedom 
of worship to all Protestants and to members of the 
Greek church. He instituted public libraries and obser- 
vatories, founded a medical college, a university, and 
schools for the middle classes, and encouraged art by 
offering prizes. He fostered industry and trade by 
destroying many monopolies, aiding in the establish- 
ment of new manufactures, making Fiume a free harbor, 
and opening the Danube to his subjects from its source 
to the Black Sea. 1 In fact, as we ponder the manifold 
activities of Joseph II, the speed at which he brought 
about reforms, one is tempted to scorn the clumsy mil- 
lion-headed Demos and long for an abrupt, Jovian 
1 Cf. Ross, Soc. Psy., 300-302. 



CHANGES SLOWLY CONSUMMATED 263 

intervention, ourselves perhaps, at least our hero, as 
the intervener. Joseph II was such an efficiency expert ! 

All his changes were well meant, but the emperor, in 
the ardor of his convictions, had not developed the skill- 
ful and sympathetic subordinates required to carry his 
good intentions into fruitful practice, nor did he realize 
how far he had shot ahead of the prevailing sentiment 
of his people. Discontent soon manifested itself in 
nearly every part of the monarchy ; there was rebellion 
in Tyrol, furious conflicts in Hungary between peasantry 
and nobles, persistent opposition in the Austrian Nether- 
lands, a feeling of license and dread throughout the 
empire. So precarious was Joseph's position that he 
had to undo almost everything he had attempted to 
accomplish during the previous nine years ; and the 
monarch who hoped to have regenerated a people, in his 
last days was rendered miserable by the conviction 
that his career had been a failure. 

Thoroughgoing changes must needs be slow ; the mind 
is not a mushroom growth, and the heritage of any or- 
ganization has been builded bit by bit. A rapid pace 
within a relatively slow-moving organization necessarily 
means increase of friction. 

Second, the Interest Element. — Any man whose life span 
is long will at some stage of his career be almost certain 
to be opposed, due to the fact that the arc of the indi- 
vidual mind cannot possibly be superimposed in its entirety 
upon that of an organization. Usually these arcs coincide 
for a brief period ; theoretically, they touch only at one 
point. A statistical investigation will make this truth 
clearer. 1 

1 This investigation was undertaken during my senior year as an 
undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, and the results, of which 
the following is a summary, entitled Correlation between Periods of 
Reformation Activity and the Leadership of Young Men, 1909, are on file 



264 THE AROUSING OF OPPOSITION 

In society innovations are always at battle with folk- 
ways. No advance would be possible were this not 
true, for progress consists in an orderly substitution of 
the less-adapted old by the more-serviceable new. But 
this substitution, though gradual, is subject to pulsa- 
tions. At times, conservatism dominates, and things 
remain pretty much as they are; at other times, pro- 
gressivism secures the ascendancy, and a period of un- 
usually rapid change follows. During these reformation 
epochs what age of men rise to positions of authority ? 

Selecting ten great periods of reform as representa- 
tive, 1 in each reform choosing the twelve leading men 
directing it, 2 tabulating the ages of these men, 3 and com- 
paring them with the average ages of non-reformers, 
national leaders during quiet epochs, selected in essen- 
tially the same way, the results have been found to be 
as follows : 

at the University Library. Mr. Brooks Adams, in his book The Theory 
of Social Revolutions, published in 1913, advances a much similar 
hypothesis, stated in these words: "No established type of mind can 
adapt itself to changes in environment, even in slow-moving civilizations, 
as fast as environments change. Thus a moment arrives when the minds 
of any given dominant type fail to meet the demands upon them and are 
superseded by a younger type, which in turn is set aside by another 
still younger, until the limit of the administrative genius of that partic- 
ular race has been reached. Then disintegration sets in." 

1 Commencing with the Protestant Reformation in 161 7 it includes 
the most important movements since then, closing with the Turkish 
Revolution of 1909. 

2 A much larger list was first compiled, and from this list were taken 
the twelve to whom most space had been devoted in the biographical 
cyclopedia. 

3 This proved to. be the most difficult of all, the deciding upon, as a 
basis for finding his age, the particular time at which each individual was 
exerting upon his period a maximum influence. In the case of a reformer 
this would not necessarily mean the maximum influence of his entire 
life, but simply of the reformation period in which he took part. The 
decision, though difficult, is essential, for it would surely be unscientific 
to compare their entire life spans, and manifestly impossible to detect 
the first entrance into consciousness of the reformation impulse. 



THE AGES OF LEADERS 265 

The Protestant Reformation was led by zealous church- 
men whose average age was thirty-eight ; x but at other 
times the church has moved quietly along under the 
careful hand of sixty-six. 2 

Men of forty-two arose to leadership during the 
Puritan Revolution, 3 leaving it to men of sixty- three to 
guide England during quiet times. 4 

Our own forefathers, in the Revolution of 1776, aver- 
aged less than! [forty years of age ; 5 our second group of 

1 Luther 43, Melanchthon 30, Calvin 40, Zwingli 42, Knox 47, Carl- 
stadt 41, Hutten 30, Bucer 45, Latimer 49, Farel 41, Hamilton 24", and 
Osiander 24. Average age 38. 

2 Leo IX 50, Gregory I 57, Gregory VII 58, Innocent III 46, Nicholas 
V 54, Julius II 65, Leo X 42, Adrian 63, Clement VII 54, Pius X (Sarto) 
68, Gotti 69, Oreglia 75, Rampolla 60, Svampa 52, Venmetelli 69. Aver- 
age 66. 

In this list of fifteen, four are names of the most important popes 
during the long history of the Church, five held office during or near 
the time of the Reformation, the tenth is that of the late pope, while 
the remaining five were his closest competitors in the papal election. The 
age of the pope is given at the date midway between his election and 
death. It also appears from the above list that the average ages of the 
popes is 55.7 years, almost eleven years less than the general average 
for the entire fifteen. This may be accounted for by the fact that sev- 
eral of these popes were vigorous reformers too. For example, Innocent 
III, whose aggressive policies extended papal authority more widely 
than ever before, drew forth this comment upon his election at the age 
of 37, "Alas, the Pope is too young: help, Lord, thy Christendom." 
And that it is the policy to elect old men is seen in the cardinals' refusal 
at the recent conclave to elect the popular and efficient Rampolla, giv- 
ing as a reason, "He is too young; he can wait until next time." Too 
young at sixty ! 

3 Cromwell 42, Eliot 49, Hampden 47, Holies 42, Hyde 32, Ireton 30, 
Lenthall 50, Pym 57, Prynne 41, Strode 42, Waller 44, and Vane 28. 
Average age 42. 

4 Pitt 59, Melbourne 59, Peel 54, Russell 64, Derby 62, Aberdeen 70, 
Palmerton 76, Disraeli 73, Gladstone 72, Salisbury 65, Rosebery 47, 
Campbell-Bannerman 70, Asquith (1909) 56. Average 63.6. The date 
selected for arriving at the ages of these prime ministers has been the 
year midway between their accession to office and the closing of their term. 

6 John Adams 40, Samuel Adams 49, Benedict Arnold 36, Benjamin 
Franklin 72, Nathanael Greene 39, Patrick Henry 29, John Jay 33, 
Thomas Jefferson 33, John Paul Jones 32, Lafayette 24, Robert Morris 
47, Washington 44. Average 39.8. 



266 THE AROUSING OF OPPOSITION 

reformers, some seventy-five years later, the Anti- 
Slavery Agitators, averaged forty-one ; 1 while at other 
times American destiny has been intrusted to men 
averaging well above fifty-three. 2 

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, were secured in the 
French Revolution by a group averaging only thirty- 
eight and a half, 3 though at other times French leaders 
have averaged over fifty-nine. 4 

The Regeneration of Prussia was wrought by men of 
forty-six and six tenths years 5 ; quiet epochs see men of 
sixty-one and eight tenths 6 advance to places of re- 
sponsibility. 

1 J. G. Birney 48, John Brown 48, Cassius Clay 40, Frederick Douglass 
35, William Lloyd Garrison 26, Joshua Giddings 53, Elijah Lovejoy 35, 
Lucretia Mott 47, Wendell Phillips 28, Gerritt Smith 53, Charles Storrs 
38, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 41. Average age 41. 

2 The lists for United States include the presidents and eighteen 
speakers of the house, the age given being that midway in their term 
of office. When this makes a half year it is rated a year in every 
other instance. Washington 61, John Adams 64, Jefferson 62, Madison 
62, Monroe 63, Adams 60, Jackson 66, Van Buren 57, Harrison 66, 
Tyler 53, Polk 53, Taylor 65, Fillmore 51, Pierce 51, Buchanan 68, 
Lincoln 54, Johnson 59, Grant 51, Hayes 57, Garfield 50, Arthur 53, 
Cleveland 54, McKinley 56, Roosevelt 47, Taft (191 2) 55. Average 
age of presidents 57.5. Winthrop 38, Cobb 35, Boyd 53, O'Brien 36, 
Orr 36, Pennington 64, Grow 39, Colfax 43, Baline 41, Kerr 48, Randall 

50, Keifer 46, Carlisle 51, Crisp 48, Reed 54, Henderson 61, Cannon 71. 
Average age of speakers 47.8. General average 53.6. 

3 Sieyes 42, Desmoulins 31, Mirabeau 41, Lafayette 34, Danton ^ } 
Marat 49, Hebert 38, Dumouriez 53, Cambon 39, Robespierre S3, Carnot 
40, Napoleon 30. Average 38.5. 

4 Catherine de Medici 61, Admiral Coligny 52, Duke of Sully 50, 
Cardinal Richelieu 57, Cardinal Mazarin 57, Colbert 61, Duke of Choiseul 

51, Turgot 49, Guizot 60, Louis Napoleon 58, Thiers 75, MacMahon 68, 
Gr6vy 79, Sadi Carnot 57, P6rier 47, Faure 56, Loubet 65, Faillieres 67. 
Average age 59.4. The above list comprises nine presidents of France 
and an equal number of statesmen who held positions of importance 
during the preceding age. 

B Arndt 42, Bliicher 69, Boycn 40, Clauswitz 31, Fichte 49, Gnei- 
senau 5 r , Grolman 34, Hardenbcrg 61 , Niebuhr 35, Scharnhorst 56, Schon 
38, Stein 54. Average 46.6. 

6 Ancillon 67, Kamptz 60, Schmalz 53, Witzleben 51, Wittgenstein 57, 
Wrangle 64, Von Moltke 70, Von RoonOo, Bismarck 61, Von Caprivi 61, 



REFORMERS AND NON-REFORMERS 267 

In the modernizing of Japan the yellow race proves 
itself no exception to the rule with leaders under thirty- 
nine, 1 nor is a different result seen in the Awakening of 
China by men of practically the same age. 2 

In the last few years the Revolution in Russia has 
been the work of men in their forties, 3 reformers whose 
radical measures have been resisted by conservatives of 
fifty-eight 4 ; and in the Orient a similar result is wit- 
nessed when the Young Turks are found to be young 
Turks indeed, reformers of thirty- two. 5 

Prince Hohenlohe 78, Count von Billow (1909) 60. Average age 61.8. 
The above list comprises six conservatives whose reactionary leadership 
prolonged the struggle for a constitutional government from 1815 until 
the outbreak of revolution in 1848, two important ministers, and the 
four chancellors of Germany. 

1 The Mikado 27, Fukuzawa Youkicki 47, Ito Hirobumi 38, Iwakura 
Tomoni 43, Itagaki Taisuke 40, Kido Takayoshi 43, Mori Arinori ^, 
Okubo Toshimichi 44, Okuma Shigenobu 34, Saigo Takamori 47, Shibu- 
sawa Erchi 33, Yamada Akiyoshi 37. Average age 38.8. 

Owing to the inadequate historical materials at hand regarding 
Japan, China, and Turkey, in the case of reforms in these countries the 
reformers are given while quiet-epoch leaders are omitted : the averages 
for these countries are later compared with the averages for the other 
countries. 

2 Chiang Ping Lun 30, Chin Tien Whah 25, Emperor Kang-shu 24, 
Julen Khelan Yenfu 40, Kang Yu Wei 40, Lee Hung Chang 60, Liang- 
Chi-chio 26, Ma Liang 70, Sun Yat Sun 45, The Prince Regent 27, Yang 
Tu 30, Yuon Li Kan 48. Average age 38.7. The above ages are esti- 
mates kindly furnished me by Chinese students. 

3 Aladin 33, Alexander Petrunkievitch 62, Alexinsky 32, Father Gapoy 
67, Father Petrof 45, Gerus 32, Herzenstein 55, Jollos 46, Maxim Gorke 
38, Osol 32, Prince Michael Trubeczkoi 52, Vinaver 43. Average age 
44.7. Numbers 5, 6, 8 and 10 are estimates furnished me by Russian 
students. 

4 Admiral Alexiff 62, Grand Duke Alexis Alesandrovitch 56, Prince 
Michael Khilhoff 63, Grand Duke Michael Nicholaivitch 64, Grand Duke 
Nicolas Nicholaivitch 50, Plehve 60, Pobiedonostseff 79, Grand Duke 
Sergius (died 1905) 48, Stolypin 46, Trepoff 51, Grand Duke Vladimir 
59. Average age 58. 

5 Enver Bey, Niyazi, Ahmed Riza Pasha, Djavid Talleat Bey, Achmet 
Bey, Kiamil Pasha, Hilmi Pasha, Miniassi Befik Bey, Ali, Selim. Aver- 
age age (estimated) 32. For this estimate I am greatly indebted to Mr. 
Charles Roden Buxton, author of Turkey in Revolution, and Dr. James 



268 THE AROUSING OF OPPOSITION 

The results may be summarized in the following table 
AGES OF REFORMERS AND NON-REFORMERS 





Reformers 


Non- 
reformers 


Difference 
in Ages 


Protestant Reformation 


38 


66 


28 


Puritan Revolution 


42 


63.6 


21.6 


Revolution of 1776 


39-8 


54-5 


14.7 


French Revolution 


38.5 


59-4 


20.9 


Regeneration of Prussia 


46.6 


61.8 


15.2 


Anti-Slavery Agitators 


41 


54-5 


13.5 


Modernizing of Japan 


38.8 






Awakening of China 


38.7 






Revolution in Russia 


44-7 


58 


13.3 


Turkey 


32 







Fig. 13. 

The above table makes evident that in every case 
reformers are decidedly younger men than non-reformers. 
No particular emphasis is laid upon the amount of dif- 
ference shown. It is realized that strict statistical 
accuracy is impossible in an investigation of this nature, 
and discriminating critics, no doubt, will find reason to 
disagree on several points in the foregoing tables. In 
no case, however, is it believed that such disagreement 
would seriously affect the results. For it is felt certain 
that any one who works through similar material will 
concur in the main with the conclusions from this evi- 
dence presented, the statement of which is as follows : 

(1) Reformers do not dijfer materially in age from one 
period to another. Those who led the Protestant 

L. Barton, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 
Boston, Massachusetts. 



YOUTHFUL REFORMERS 269 

Revolution four hundred years ago were approximately 
the same age as the reformers of later times. 

(2) Daring young leaders plunge a nation into the 
foment of change; conversely, new conditions call forth 
aggressive innovators. Henry Clay, at thirty-four, the 
head of a band of bold young Western leaders, brought 
on the war of 181 2. Thirty-nine years later, grown 
conservative, the Great Pacificator championed the 
Compromise of 1850. With the passing of Clay, Web- 
ster, and Calhoun, new leaders rose whose advent was 
followed by the Civil War. 

(3) Youthful reformers later in life become conserv- 
ative. Japan's marvelous progress was stimulated 
thirty years ago by the same men who, now grown con- 
servative, are opposing the reforms which younger 
leaders are desiring to consummate. Hence arises that 
most pathetic figure, the once ardent reformer now 
through age transformed in temper, yet unable to realize 
that what he advocates has been superseded long since, 
and sorely wounded by the darts of " mossbackism " he 
once hurled at others. He is an alien prophet whose 
shouts of " Lo, here ! " " Lo, there ! " no one heeds. 

(4) The old men occasionally found active as reformers 
are usually following their youthful bent. Pym, given 
in the foregoing lists as a reformer at fifty-seven, broke 
with Charles I twenty years earlier, a reformer at thirty- 
seven. B Richer, given as a reformer at sixty-nine, then 
displayed the same aggressive willfulness as at eighteen. 
Kiamil Pasha, a Young Turk of eighty-four, has always 
had very liberal ideas. And Petrunkievitch's age of 
sixty-two seems difficult to reconcile until the fact 
appears that he has been an active agitator for thirty- 
eight years, a reformer at twenty-four. 

(5) Reforms are wrought by youth; old age governs 
during quiet epochs. This is the main conclusion to 



270 THE AROUSING OF OPPOSITION 

be drawn from the foregoing evidence. Its correlative 
may be stated as follows : 

(6) The degree of conservatism characterizing an epoch 
may be roughly measured by the ages of its leaders. The 
requirement, it will be noted from our present point of 
view, is set by the many, the multitude who, contributing 
sentiment and stability, secures its ends through a 
shrewd choice of leaders. The man shall not be chosen 
whose years declare him out of touch with the current 
need. 

It is this last point, this being in touch with current 
need, and not merely the element of age, which at 
bottom the foregoing investigation has emphasized. 
This gives interest, and interest insures the readier in- 
corporation of all variations, that haven sought through 
storm and stress by those who direct. But because the 
individual passes from youth through maturity into 
old age more rapidly than does his organization, he is nec- 
essarily out of touch part of the time and hence bound 
to arouse opposition. 

Third, the Distance between Fact and Representation. — 
When a leader eludes suspicion and, deftly sidestepping 
judgment, appeals direct to credulity, he often pushes 
expectancy to strange extremes. But a collapse is 
imminent at any time. The career of John Law in 
France is a notable instance of this sort. 

Some three hundred years ago, Law, a handsome, dig- 
nified, and gentlemanly Scotchman, proposed to the 
Parisians a most enticing financial scheme. Its basis 
was inflation, yet it took the French by storm. A frenzy 
for speculation ensued. Professional speculators, cred- 
itors of the government, noblemen, churchmen, com- 
moners, and servants whom their suddenly acquired 
fortune had filled with the hope of rivaling their masters, 
all classes cherishing the same illusions, crowded into the 



CAREER OF JOHN LAW 271 

rue Guincampaix. As the rents increased manyfold, 
residences were converted into offices by the stock- 
jobbers, and merchants gave up their shops ; a cobbler, 
converting his stall into an office by placing in it some 
stools, a table, and a writing desk, rented it for two 
hundred francs a day. 

The brokers, organized into regular swindling com- 
panies, " bullish " or " bearish " at the sound of a bell 
signaled from the office of one Papillon, reaped a harvest 
never since equaled, even by Wall Street. A million 
francs were sometimes made in a day. Servants at 
times became suddenly rich as their masters, it being 
related that one of them, meeting his master in the 
rain, stopped his carriage to offer him a seat. In a few 
months all were fascinated by this wild illusion. The 
shares had mounted to thirty times the original price, 
and no one stopped to consider what was the foundation 
of this enormous wealth. 

In the eyes of the wondering crowd, Law, as the 
author of such prodigies, became a chimerical being, 
superhuman, a demigod to be reverently worshiped 
by the throngs, overwhelmed with flatteries in prose 
and verse, his very servants courted, and he himself 
so beset with adulation that he had no repose, day or 
night. 

The collapse was sharp. An acute financial crisis 
spread ruin among the investors. The suddenly 
made rich were even more suddenly beggared, and all 
would find a scapegoat. Law's house was mobbed, his 
carriage broken to pieces by street rioters, he himself 
insulted and intrigued against. " I am," he said, " like 
the chicken with golden eggs, who was worth no more, 
dead, than a common fowl." 1 

All movements in which feeling predominates are 

1 Thiers, John Law and the Mississippi Bubble, especially Ch. v. 



272 THE AROUSING OF OPPOSITION 

liable to mount to unstable heights. The lynching 
mob, the rioting strikers, the frenzied revivalists, the 
political paraders, the ardent revolutionists, breed leaders 
who fear to be moderate. Social sanity for the time 
being is abandoned. But not for long. Rationality 
in the end is co-worker with efficiency ; a reaction soon 
or later is certain to occur, and a new leader, a man of 
reason, thereupon is thoughtfully crowned. 

We have now considered the width of variation, con- 
ditioned as it is by the speed limit, the interest element, 
and the distance between fact and representation; it 
remains in conclusion to note the second of the two 
factors upon which the height of opposition depends, 
viz. the degree of force with which these variations are 
urged. The executive intent on increasing output or 
lowering expenses or introducing his new scheme of 
management cannot alone batter down the inertia of 
habit-bound men nor withstand their general opposi- 
tion. But he can win a few to his cause, with these few 
force in other adherents, until his party, swelled into a 
dominant power, overrides the none too vigilant major- 
ity. This is all the more readily possible because men 
normally differentiate into interest groups, gangs, 
cliques, factions, sects, parties, and classes. While 
owning a general allegiance to the entire organization, 
these grant special allegiance to the particular part with 
which their interests are closest. 

Such were the intriguers of Florence, the barbarian 
invaders of Rome, the followers of Luther in Germany, 
the Committee of Safety during the French Revolution, 
the trade unions and the trusts of our day, the special 
interest groups which spring up in church conferences, 
factories, or commercial concerns. These inner groups, 
loyally devoted to the man who furthers their cause, 



SPECIAL INTERESTS 273 

be he president serving stockholders though " the public 
be damned," or boss plentifully feeding the system, 
serve as an organized form of repression upon the larger 
group outside. 

The larger group has always viewed with concern the 
development within itself of an apparently revolutionary 
organization, waxing in prosperity and power, whose 
success is accounted ominous. And the force visited 
upon this larger group, it has sought to hurl back upon 
the aggressor. Thus has developed the fraud, pomp, 
prescription, *and superstition with which a ruling class 
would master the masses, and similarly is to be explained 
the pennant- winning team and peerless sales and factory 
organizations torn with internal dissension. But by 
this same means, this use of force, groups of men have 
attained goals which otherwise would have remained 
only visions. 

The deduction to be drawn from this chapter, in conse- 
quence, is that he who selects a narrow variation and 
pushes it with little force is not necessarily the wise man- 
ager. In this way, it is true, he meets with slight re- 
sistance, yet he never brings large things to pass. A 
far better policy than no opposition is little opposition 
in proportion to gains made, and, however fruitful the 
variation and ready the force, stopping short of being 
overwhelmed. Due to this aim, a knowledge of oppo- 
sition's causes and possible height does not serve peace 
so much as effectiveness. 



EXERCISES 

1. Why has the introduction of scientific management often 
been followed by hostility in the shops? Why does organized 
labor oppose scientific management? 

2. What American careers comparable to John Law's? 



274 THE AROUSING OF OPPOSITION 

3. Show that the exchange of methods of advertising by 
bankers and circuses would be mutually disastrous. 

4. How was it that Luther so readily inaugurated the Refor- 
mation ? 

5. What policy should be pursued in reference to complaints? 

6. Why did Columbus arouse opposition, and by what means 
was he opposed ? Cyrus McCormick ? William Jennings Bryan ? 

READINGS 

Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order, Ch. VII. 
White, History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, Ch. I. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Competitors 

"Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the uni- 
versal struggle for life, or more difficult than constantly to bear 
this conclusion in mind." — Charles Darwin. 

Competition develops because there are not enough 
places for all who would rule, the various aspirants 
necessarily running afoul of one another. These compet- 
itors are of two possible sorts : unlike, as minister and 
amusement manager vie for the same man's presence; 
and like, as when representative of German bridge 
builder and representative of American bridge builder 
seek contracts from a South African railroad. A nec- 
essary preliminary, therefore, is this classification of 
one's opponents. 

ATTITUDE OF CONTESTANTS 

In entering upon a contest, one may take the initiative, 
or he may leave this to his opponent, or both may attack 
simultaneously. In other words, these attitudes are 
presented : 

i. A denies or opposes B, but B does not deny or op- 
pose A} — At times A is the innovator intent on reshap- 
ing things. He looses the first broadside, because there 
will be no struggle until he does, and waiting irritates 

1 For the phraseology of these terms I am indebted to Ross, Soc. Psy., 
317, 318. See also Tarde, La logique sociale, 138-141. 

275 



276 COMPETITORS 

one of his temperament. Sometimes the shot he fires 
is heard round the world, as Luther in his attack on 
Rome, Garrison indicting slavery, Jesus upbraiding 
the Pharisees ; sometimes not, as millions of nameless 
opponents through the centuries could testify. 

At times B is the innovator, desiring for the time 
being only sufferance in order that, under cover, he may 
survey the field and station his outposts. Antony, a 
meek and sorrowing friend, a plain blunt man who 
speaks right on, nears the close of his oration before 
he defiantly shouts, " Here was a Caesar ! when comes 
such another?" The nephew of Napoleon, then a 
penniless adventurer backed only by the prestige of 
a great name, heralded on his way to the National 
Assembly by " Vive Louis Napoleon ! Vive l'Empereur ! " 
received by his colleagues, however, in deep silence, 
prefaced thus his maiden speech : " Receive me into your 
ranks, dear colleagues. You need not doubt that my 
conduct will always be inspired by respectful adherence 
to the law; it will prove to all who have endeavored 
to traduce me that no one is more devoted than I to the 
defense of order and the consolidation of the Republic " 
— an adroit move toward the imperial honors he then 
coveted and later held as Napoleon III. Powers in 
the bud court protection from the withering criticism 
which later they withstand with ease. 

Two policies similarly are open to the well-established. 
It may pay no attention whatever to the newcomer, 
thereby suggesting the latter's insignificance and its 
own self-sufficiency. Or it may destroy the competitor 
in his chrysalid state, applying in thoroughgoing fashion 
the view that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure. Obviously, the practical wisdom of each policy 
depends upon a correct estimation of the competitor in 
relation to oneself. If he is destined to be harmless, let 



ATTACKING THE COMPETITOR 277 

him destroy himself or leave the deed to others. Should 
it mean later a death grapple, wrestle early. His Holi- 
ness the Pope might well have chided himself over his 
first dilatory tactics with Luther; so might the trust 
magnate chide himself should he snap up the factory 
built merely for competitive blackmail. 

In this type of contest there is not only a utilization 
of the time element, because of which in reality many a 
victory has been won before the first shot, but there is 
often the added advantage of devolving upon an oppo- 
nent the initiative of conflict. Caesar so maneuvered 
that, while himself keeping on legal ground, he compelled 
Pompey to declare war and that as a revolutionary 
leader opposed in his tactics by a majority of the senate. 
The advantage is considerable, often representing the 
sole difference between a waxing and a waning cause. 
The assailer courts repulsion, the defender tends to 
draw aid unto himself. 

2. A and B mutually deny and oppose One Another. 
— Each side boldly asserts its claims, declares also its 
absolute incompatibility with the other. Temporizing 
policies thereupon are abandoned, a decision must be 
made and adhered to, and an alignment thereupon 
takes place. Each individual comes to realize not only 
his own opinion, but also that there are others holding 
contrary views. This in turn intensifies his own con- 
viction, widens the breach between himself and opposers, 
and makes him a zealot in uniting all wavering ones to 
his cause. The attack on Sumter unified North against 
South, South against North, and this was followed by 
the dislodging of one border state after another from its 
assumed position of neutrality. The war with Spain 
united all factions behind a Republican administration 
and did much to recement North and South ; the 
struggle against corrupt rings has shown marvelous 



278 COMPETITORS 

power to weld diverse elements in our municipalities; 
the sales force, brushing against the enemy day by day, 
possesses a determined loyalty to the house not grown 
among factory operatives who know not what it is all 
about. 1 When Greek meets Greek every one does know 
what it is about, and along the rank and file all is expec- 
tancy. It is pleasant to achieve, but never so stirring 
as when others seek that which we would have. 

The contest itself is carried on much like a military 
campaign. There is the surprise, the feint, the crushing 
blow, the flank movement, the reserve attack, the antic- 
ipatory movement, even at times not a little of spy and 
traitor. But good strategy demands, one must never 
overlook, that at all times one's resources be valued 
not in themselves, but in relation to the opponent's, and 
in general the style of contest be developed in which our 
best weapons are available, thus pitting strength against 
weakness. 

COMPETITIVE WEAPONS 

Since the object of competition is to win those of 
contrary views over to our own, the place of contest 
is really within the individual consciousness. The 
mind, because of its primitive credulity, has gathered 
to itself the strongest assortment, superstitions, gaudy 
imagery, odds and ends of percepts, concepts in all 
stages of completion, a veritable jungle in which perforce 
the fiercest natural enemies often slumber undisturbed. 2 

To such a mind each competitor now addresses his 
respective appeal. Doubt and inquiry are raised. Con- 
sciousness is filled with unrest, prone to act merely 

1 An interesting suggestion comes from one manufacturer who, in 
full view of his factory windows, nailed upon the high board fence his 
competitor's "hide." 

3 James, Prin. of Psy., II, 299. 



SECURING DECISION 279 

because decision relieves the tension of doubt and is 
agreeable, yet dreading the irrevocable and hence 
hesitant. How is a competitor to end this irresolution 
and secure from the person's will the decision he desires ? 
Evidently by rousing and guiding the mind, for will is 
merely the whole mind active. 1 

Now the means to do this have been considered in 
Part II with such detail that they need not be further 
discussed. By their use, the instincts, emotions, and 
intellect are stirred, and irresolution passes into resolu- 
tion. It might seem that competition is then at an 
end, but this step is rather preliminary than final. The 
individual mind, acting upon its conviction, allies itself 
with those of similar conviction and action, and opposes 
those of contrary beliefs. Competition is not ended 
but broadened. 

TYPES OF CONTEST 

In this competition, every element of motivation 

— personality, suggestion, rewards, instruction, etc. 

— in reality enters into combination or opposition with 
every other element, obviously a very complex proced- 
ure. But for the sake of clearer presentation, may not 
these be grouped into fewer yet still typical forms of 
contest? This is possible. The various instinctive 
and emotional appeals may be combined into one and 
termed prestige 2 ; the intellectual appeals similarly may 
be termed logic. In the struggle evolved by compe- 
tition, consequently, these two elements may give rise 
to the three following types of contest : 

* Angell, Psy., 379. 

2 Tarde, Laws of Imitation, 141; Ross, Soc. Psy., 297-299. Ross' 
use of the term "merit" does not seem to me justifiable, since merit may 
rest with either side. 



2 8o COMPETITORS 

i. Prestige against Prestige. — Each opponent bedecks 
himself in all possible prestige conferring insignia. Such 
impressive adjuncts as ponderous tones, piercing eye, 
beetle brow, authoritative carriage, decorations granted 
by imperial decree, sword worn on many a hard-fought 
field, are lavishly displayed; though an opponent, 
shrewdly sensing the popular mind, finds that power also 
adheres in the sack suit and battered gray hat, in being a 
plain man of " the people " or in living close to his men. 

When in politics prestige opposes prestige, hired 
"spellbinders " harangue whoever will hear; floods of 
lithographs, campaign buttons, " facts about those del- 
egates," becloud the issue; " Truth Tellers " track the 
leading opponent from state to state; in the closing 
days of the campaign men of " influence " invade the 
doubtful territory; at the last moment a tremendous 
" roar " is loosed. Defeat, if experienced, is explained 
away, the appearance of victory is maintained ; and 
redoubled, though perhaps quieter, effort wards off the 
threatened collapse. 

In general, each side seeks to buttress up its cause 
through apparent possession of authority, wealth, 
position, or whatever else is humanly desirable. Cortes 
in Mexico was " Chief- Justice and Captain-General of 
the Municipality of Vera Cruz," a mere fiction of his 
own creation. William the Silent solemnly declared 
himself " Stadtholder of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht," 
even while another had been appointed and legally he 
himself was a rebel. Frederick II, in the eyes of the 
pope a wicked and lost wanderer, addressed himself, or 
encouraged his followers to address him, in such mod- 
est titles as " Vicar of God on Earth," the " Reformer 
of the Age," a new " Elijah discomfiting the priests of 
Baal." Bonaparte, the plebeian, contracted marriage 
with a princess, imperial blood for twenty generations, 



WEAPONS WHICH BEDAZZLE 281 

seeing to it, also, that his coronation was graced by the 
spiritual presence of His Holiness the Pope. The 
emperor, moreover, by himself placing the iron crown 
upon his head in such august presence, suggested that 
none other earthly personage was so exalted. It is an 
often-worked plan. In consequence, current claims of 
lineage, achievements, wealth, ability, and intentions 
frequently remind one of Mark Twain's witty refutation, 
" I find the reports of my death grossly exaggerated." 

Next to being mighty oneself is to be in close league 
with the mighty ; one can then at least reflect an alien 
luster. So highly was esteemed the privilege of forming 
a part of Louis XIV's society, that opportunities to ap- 
proach the king in such menial capacities as domestic 
in his household, as usher, cloak bearer, or valet, even 
in 1789 were eagerly purchased for thirty, forty, at times 
a hundred thousand livres. The ambitious angler for 
social position flushes proud as she displays on her card 
tray pasteboards from one of the Smart Set ; countless 
humble shopkeepers announce " Purveyor to His Royal 
Majesty " ; the ward " boss " passes around the word 
that he also is backed by speakers and money from a 
"swell" source; and the rulers are legion who have 
emphatically announced, " God is on our side." The 
implication is clear: What the mighty have approved 
let none other seek to question. 

As prestige clashes with prestige it is not in the nature 
of things a marshaling of arguments. The emotions 
rise, the contest degenerates. Van Buren's foes shouted 
with furor, " Van, Van, a used-up man " ; Clay's enemies 
circulated upon every occasion that most vital of politi- 
cal lies — ■ " the bargain between Puritan and black- 
leg " ; Lincoln was described as " an ignorant country 
lawyer, reeking with filthy stories " ; even his more 
temperate critic addressed Daniel O'Connell as, 



282 COMPETITORS 

"Scum condensed of Irish bcgfl 
Ruffian — coward — demagogue ! 
Boundless liar — base detractor ! 
Nurse of murder, treason's factor ! 
Spout thy filth — effuse thy slime ! 
Slander is in thee no crime." 

Wyclif's enemies called him not merely a glutton when 
he ate and a hypocrite when he fasted, but a turncoat, a 
mirfor of hypocrites, a fabricator of lies, John Wicked- 
believe, an instrument of the devil ; the pope, according 
to Frederick II, was " a Pharisee anointed with the oil 
of iniquity and sitting in a seat of corrupt judgment, a 
false vicar of Christ and deceiving serpent." Charges 
and counter charges ; epithets and shouts of " liar," 
" scoundrel," " traitor," ' " thief" ; lurid headlines, 
turgid spellbinders, fulminations, claim the arena when 
reason decamps and emotion rules. 

Some, of course, will have no sympathy with such a 
contest nor for the means with which it is carried on. 
It may be pointed out, however, that emotionalized 
men may storm heights as well as fight in the pit. 

2. Prestige against Logic. — The reign of prestige, 
the executive learns, gives him an organization of strong 
faith and enthusiasm. But in handling prosaic details 
it makes many mistakes. In fact, so complex has grown 
the subordinate's task that well-thought-out conduct 
alone will suffice. Logic accordingly has some grounds 
for brushing aside the claims of prestige, but, grounds or 
none, it insists that arguments be produced and threshed 
over in discussion. 

Now the mere putting up of a subject to discussion, 
with the object of being guided by its results, as Bage- 
hot points out, 1 is " a clear admission that that subject 
is in no degree settled by established rule, and that men 

1 Physics of Politics, 161. 



DISCUSSION 283 

are free to choose it. It is an admission, too, that there 
is no sacred authority — no one transcendent and 
divinely appointed man whom in that matter the com- 
munity is bound to obey. And if a single subject or 
group of subjects be once admitted to discussion, ere- 
long the habit of discussion comes to be established, the 
sacred charm of use and wont to be dissolved. . . . 
Once effectually submit a subject to that ordeal, and 
you can never withdraw it again ; you can never again 
clothe it with mystery, or fence it by consecration; it 
remains forever open to free choice, and exposed to 
profane deliberation." The prestige which flourished 
as the green bay tree, under such withering interrogation 
is shorn of its foliage. The remark of General Richelieu, 
himself a witness of three successive reigns, to Louis XVI, 
" Sire, under Louis XIV no one dared to speak a word, 
under Louis XV people spoke quite softly, under your 
majesty they speak quite loud already," indicates the 
normal degeneration of prestige under criticism. 

Those unable to justify themselves by fact dread dis- 
cussion. For discussion deals ruthless blows to False 
Decretals, Divine Right, Special Privilege, the claim that 
whatever is is right. It unmasks the pious doctrine that 
slavery is justified by Biblical texts, that the sacred duty 
of subjects is obedience, that whoever bandies about 
the words " home," " our country," " God," is thereby 
unassailable. In general, it ousts the long-bearded 
Meriweg in favor of the Major Domus, and in turn 
exchanges Carolingian for him, in the words of the old 
chronicle, " whose military prowess, wisdom, faith, 
mark as the fittest to fill it." Hence losing sides oppose 
discussion. 1 

Dogma has sought in every possible way to curb rea- 
son. The Copernican theory in astronomy, the Dar- 
1 Ross, Soc. Psy., 307-308. 



284 COMPETITORS 

winian theory in biology, the naturalistic explanations 
of volcanoes and fossils and disease, the propounders of 
all were so hounded that here, as in the case of the church, 
the blood of the martyrs is the seed of science. Aris- 
tocracy buttresses her waning prestige by press censor- 
ship, repression of " rabble " gatherings, convenient 
definitions of treason, the exaltation of ignorance, the 
insertion of a designing hand into the school curriculum. 
Privilege urges the sacredness of vested interests, stig- 
matizes innovation, 1 throttles single-tax agitators, de- 
velops a predatory press with which, brilliant editors 
having chloroformed their readers, the picking of pockets 
may go on. In such service, the customary methods 
of stimulation and control take on a certain brazenness. 
But this, the executive says, is alien to his own school 
superintendency — or management of factory or store. 
Not so. His new methods, demonstrably better, are 
opposed by subordinates " without any reason " and 
scorned by competitors whose quality and " superiority " 
were set long since. And in turn, to make the matter 
personal, is not the new plan, a demonstrably better 
plan, much less noteworthy when heralded by other 
concerns than by the peerless organization or even when 
evolved by subordinates instead of his own wonderful 
initiative ? 



1 "Since the leisure class is in great measure sheltered from the stress 
of economic exigencies, its office in social evolution is to retard the move- 
ment and to conserve what is absolescent. This conservatism on their 
part is commonly explained as due to a vested interest, of an unworthy 
sort, in maintaining present conditions. The truer explanation would 
seem to be that the wealthy class is not constrained to demand change, 
and hence conservatism, characterizing as it does the wealthier and 
therefore more reputable portion of the community, has acquired a 
certain honorific or decorative value. Conservatism, being an upper- 
class characteristic, is decorous; and conversely, innovation, being a 
lower-class phenomenon, is vulgar." Veblem, Theory of the Leisure 
Class, 198-200, adapted. 



A CONTEST OF REASONS 285 

3. Logic against Logic. — Each side here aims, through 
clear and cogent reasoning, to produce conviction. It 
is no mere contentious appeal, a modicum of evidence 
distorted by prejudice and made without real intention 
of changing any one's opinion; but a winning of the 
intellect by clear thought and presentation. This clear 
thought, admirable alike in orator or business manager, 
is no chance product, but results from a mastery of 
analysis. 1 From the mass of detail the essential ideas, 
those over which the clash will come and the result turn, 
are sorted out and firmly held. These essential ideas, 
backed up by facts, authoritative opinions, and reason- 
ing based upon them, cause conviction in the opponent's 
mind. 

But is not such procedure in practice too fine spun for 
any save academicians? It may be. Yet increasingly 
numerous is becoming that choice fruitage of civiliza- 
tion, the rationalized person. 2 He is fascinated neither 
by the great man nor the crowd, impressed neither by 
antiquity nor novelty, but, open equally to ideas coming 
from subordinates and superiors, he judges them only 
by their apparent fitness. For him life is always in 

1 Such analytic power preeminently characterized Chief Justice 
Marshall, of whom one writer says, "So perfect is his analysis that he 
extracts the whole matter, the kernel of inquiry, unbroken, clean, and 
entire." Similarly was such power the chief cause of Lincoln's early 
success as a lawyer and his later astonishing ability to understand com- 
plex military situations. His mind, it is said, ran back behind facts, 
principles, and all things, to their origin and cause. Clocks, omnibuses, 
language, paddle wheels, and idioms never escaped his observation and 
analysis ; he must know them inside and outside, upside and downside. 
He was remorseless in his analysis of fact and principles. Woe be to 
the man who hugged to his bosom a secret error if Lincoln got on the 
chase of it. Time could hide the error in no nook or corner of space in 
which he could not detect and expose it." Herndon and Weik, Life of 
Lincoln, III, 594-595, cited by Baker and Huntington, Principles of 
Argumentation, 14-15, adapted. 

2 Cf. Ross, Soc. Psy., Ch. xvi, especially the brilliant paragraph, 
285-286. 



286 COMPETITORS 

process. Prices, materials, forms of organization, opin- 
ions, even dogmas, he realizes are in the grip of incessant 
change. Accordingly he mistrusts long-standing prac- 
tices as being out of touch with present requirements, 
keeps plastic by renovating his ideas as the years pass, 
and, refusing the cramp of custom, boldly posits the 
standard of relativity as his guide. 

It is because of him, and others of like kind, that talk, 
mere " endless talk," has ushered in an age of progress 
and redress. Well has it been said : " It is safe to sup- 
pose that one half of the talk of the world on subjects of 
general interest is waste. But the other half certainly 
tells. We know this from the change in ideas from gen- 
eration to generation. We see that opinions which at 
one time everybody held became absurd in the course 
of half a century, — opinions about religion and morals 
and manners and government. . . . There can be no 
doubt that it is talk — somebody's, anybody's, every- 
body's talk — by which these changes are wrought, by 
which each generation comes to feel and think differ- 
ently from its predecessor. No one ever talks freely 
about anything without contributing something, let it 
be ever so little, to the unseen forces which carry the race 
on to its final destiny. Even if he does not make a 
positive impression, he counteracts or modifies some other 
impression, or sets in motion some train of ideas in some 
one else, which helps to change the face of the world. So 
I shall, in disregard of the great laudation of silence which 
filled the earth in the days of Carlyle, say that one of the 
functions of an educated man is to talk, and, of course, 
he should try to talk wisely." * It is such talk as this 
which parts wheat from chaff, and guarantees a harvest 
to the executive whose logical grounds are superior. 

1 Godkin, Problems of Modern Democracy, 221-224 passim. Quoted 
by Ross, op. cit., 3 10-31 1. 



CHOOSING THE APPEAL 287 

CHOICE OF PRESTIGE OR LOGIC 

It may have seemed that prestige is doomed when 
logic appears; yet observation does not confirm this 
view, nor does an analysis fail to reveal that either 
may in certain instances be superior. The practical 
problem, consequently, is to note with care these in- 
stances. This will now be done. 

j. The Subject over which the Competition takes 
Place. — This subject, a proposed tariff, a wider main 
street, a new tramway, an improved machine, possibly 
has some unusual argumentative points. The sales- 
man able to demonstrate that his office appliance cost- 
ing one hundred dollars does the work of two six-dollar- 
per-week clerks, should pencil and paper it before the 
prospective buyer. Suppose the subject, however, is 
the poetry of Shakespeare, the prophetism of Dowie, 
the suffrage movement, the new dancing, tea's supe- 
riority in taste over coffee. By what chain of reasoning 
can it be definitely settled? None. Their respec- 
tive strengths inhere in prestige, and by means of it 
they hope for favor and survival. 

The nature of the subject, however, is not the sole 
criterion ; much depends also upon whether it is new or 
old, changing or static. The old, well-established, and 
relatively static runs smoothly in the grooves of habit ; 
it is the new and changing, especially so if in addition 
it is important, which must drag its adherents into the 
unknown and over strange roads. And this latter 
prestige has not the power to do. The intellect, in- 
stead, is the supreme agent in perfecting new adaptations, 
and it necessarily is here called into play. Once the 
change has been initiated, prestige comes into supple- 
ment, perhaps ultimately to assume entire charge. The 
rule of effectiveness therefore is : logic for the new or 



288 COMPETITORS 

rapidly changing, prestige for the old and relatively 
static. 

2. The Persons upon whose Conviction the Competi- 
tion Turns. — There are those apparently who apply 
without ceasing the searching test of merit. It does not 
suffice to them that a thing is good. They have adopted 
in thoroughgoing fashion the viewpoint of relativity 
and the thing must be better, demonstratively better, 
than possible others before it wins their assent. Yet 
how few have thus rationalized themselves. It is, no 
doubt, the ideal widely held, but are we not flattered 
into acquiescence when some one suggests, " You, a 

reasonable man, "? In fact, it could hardly be 

otherwise. Rational attitudes are a later fruitage in 
the individual life, people being born young and igno- 
rant and only gradually working their way upward 
through layer upon layer of instinctive and emotional 
reactions into the clear light of reason. Moreover, 
there are temperamental differences which still further 
delay the transition. The Protestants after four hun- 
dred years of strife have not destroyed the Roman 
church, nor have the Unitarians as yet proselyted the 
Methodists ; whisky and beer and wine and temper- 
ance each have a selected, not a chance, group of ad- 
herents. 

Much depends, in addition, upon homogeneity or 
heterogeneity. Should the members of the group ad- 
dressed be of like nature and attainments, logic will 
reach them with effectiveness ; arguments range from 
complex abstractness to simple concreteness, and hence 
in skilled hands may be adjusted to any group. In 
heterogeneous organizations, however, the cement of 
prestige sets best. Its appeal harks back to the sub- 
conscious, a comparatively undifferentiated racial expe- 
rience in which, when contrasted with the numberless 



APPEALS COMBINED 289 

gradations of reason, men are alike. Because it thus 
has a wider range with heterogeneous groups of men 
prestige is more effective. 

3. The Sort of Action Desired. — Both prestige and 
logic are able to secure action, yet if either must be used 
alone, the latter is perhaps stronger. Especially is this 
true should the person to whom appeal is made be non- 
suggestible, a critical, self-centered type; or in non- 
suggestible condition, comfortable, well, secluded. 
Should opposite conditions prevail, an audience packed 
in moving picture show, a throng pushing toward 
bank door, strikers roused over the death of a fellow 
member — prestige rises in power. By means of its 
contagion, a whirling suction is developed, able to strip 
the most rational and scatter his sane thoughts aloft 
in the winds. 

The action, moreover, is rapid. It takes time to run 
over arguments one by one, heaping up facts and weighty 
opinions until the eye of reason is satisfied ; but this is 
logic's method. Prestige scorns such laborious proce- 
dure. Skipping nimbly onward, flashing a happy phrase 
here, a mirage there, encouraging and exhorting with 
deft caress and glance, she has drawn men into a far 
country before they realize what it is all about. Con- 
verted quickly, they may even more suddenly return. 
The slow caravan of logic possibly has not yet passed 
the borders of the home land, but every step is con- 
sidered, and there is no thought of going back. 

The respective merits and shortcomings of logic and 
prestige have now been considered in relation to subject, 
people, and action desired. What of their use in partic- 
ular instances? When it comes to practice, the old 
motto is here emphatically true, In union there is 
strength ; consequently, never employ either unsupported 
by the other. This may be represented by a diagram. 



290 



COMPETITORS 



Let xz be termed the motivating line, moving freely 
to the right or left with y, the place of intersection, 
correspondingly changing its location. Let xy and 
yz be the proportions of prestige and logic respectively 
required by the particular situation. Suppose it is a 
corporation director's meeting and the executive is pro- 
posing to curtail the budget — he slides line xyz sharply 
toward " Logic " (cd), thereby increasing the reason 



a 


X c 




BO 


Instinctive and ■ 
Emotional Reactions - 


Reason Reactions 


] 


D 


z d 



Fig. 5. — Prestige versus Logic. 

element (xy) at the expense of the instinctive and emo- 
tional element (yz). He becomes argumentative. Sup- 
pose it is the huge mass meeting just before the polls 
open on the morrow. The candidate commences with 
accurate statements, but, warming to his subject, he 
implores "every patriot who loves his home, his country, 
and his God, to perform his full duty to-morrow, that the 
glorious heritage of our fathers be forever saved from 
the insidious foes of evil" — xyz is far toward ab. 
Every situation, indeed every separate phase of the 
situation, calls for readjustment of this motivating line. 
The leader, like locomotive engineer at throttle, slides 
it from side to side as his organization, throbbing with 
energy, works out the destiny he has set for it. 

Thus is revealed the essential oneness of the entire 
process ; these two elements are not antagonists but 
supplements. Prestige gives the touch of persuasive- 



COMPLETE MOTIVATION 291 

ness which, warming the mind into cordiality, secures 
logic a hearing x ; it adds fervor to the dry appeal of rea- 
son and gives it power. Logic, in turn, satisfies the 
critical faculties, and to the power of prestige provides 
stability of action. The line xyz, in reality, is not single 
but broken at y. Simultaneously, xy may advance 
toward cd, yz toward ab, both lengthening and waxing 
in power as they go. The instincts, the emotions, 
and the intellect are stirred, and that simultaneously. 
Substituting now for the terms " prestige " and " logic " 
the complete categories personality, imitation, sugges- 
tion, emulation, art, illusion, discipline, rewards, idealism, 
and instruction, we see how through combination of 
these the whole mind is made active, and in the group 
complete motivation is secured. This represents not 
merely the overthrow of competitors, but the highest 
possible triumph of the executive. Completely moti- 
vated, with interest roused and opposition allayed, the 
members of his organization strive as super-men to do 
his will. 

x "It is an old and true maxim," said President Lincoln, "that a 
'drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.' So with men. 
If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are 
his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, 
which, say what he will, when once gained, you will find but little trouble 
in convincing his judgment of the Justice of your cause, if indeed that 
cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his 
judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned 
and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to 
his head and his heart; and though your cause be naked truth itself, 
and though you throw it with more than Herculean force and precision, 
you will be no more able to pierce him than to penetrate the hard skull 
of a tortoise with a rye straw." Scott, Influencing Men in Business, 
153-154. 



2 9 2 COMPETITORS 



EXERCISES 

i. Do men more often base their decisions upon evidence or 
seek evidence to justify their decisions? 

2. Show how the contest of prestige versus prestige tends to 
degenerate, while that of logic versus logic tends to rise. 

3. Should a coffee merchant oppose other brands of coffee or 
other drinks, as tea or cocoa? 

4. Do churches suffer more from the competition of other 
churches or from non-church influences? 

5. Under the present organized competition is the labor 
problem more or less serious than heretofore? 

6. Why do tottering empires often resort to foreign wars? 
When a centralized monarchy wars a democracy, what differences 
in policy pursued by the respective leaders? 

READINGS 

Bagehot, Physics and Politics, Ch. V. 

Ross, Social Psychology, Chs. XVIII, XXII, or Bryce, The Ameri- 
can Commonwealth, II, Part IV. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

The Executive's Adaptability 

"Licinius, trust a seaman's lore, 
Steer not too boldly to the deep, 
Nor, fearing storms, by treacherous shore 
Too closely creep." — Horace. 

Competition provides scope for the powers of the 
strong man. It puts a premium upon mass action, the 
single wage earner or tradesman or manufacturer in the 
strife for existence or for prosperity being hard pressed 
by organized labor or chain store or trust. Moreover, 
as management increases in efficiency, the smaller or- 
ganization is routed by its larger opponent. But every 
organization calls for an executive, and the larger and 
more complex the organization, the keener its opponents, 
the more necessary he is. 

The claim is often advanced that numbers of men 
without authoritative direction can work together for 
their mutual interests. As set forth in theory it is plaus- 
ible enough, and not a few adherents have been won to 
it. The Industrial Workers of the World, the coopera- 
tive societies, the anarchists, the advocates of the ini- 
tiative, the referendum and the recall, even claim to 
have proved the theory in practice, with citation of cases 
as evidence. 

Observation of these cases seems to indicate quite a 
different result. The syndicalists, in trying to establish 
a thoroughgoing industrial democracy, have themselves 
developed a hierarchy with powers quite more absolute 

293 



2Q4 EXECUTIVE'S ADAPTABILITY 

than what they set out to overthrow. The cooperative 
societies, in this country at least, have a history filled 
with accounts of internal dissension and wasteful methods, 
those enterprises of less disappointing careers usually 
being ruled by some member energetic and ambitious 
enough to enforce his will over the incompetents. The 
advocates of the initiative, the referendum, and the 
recall have all the best of it in argument ; but their en- 
thusiasm has one effective damper, the lethargy of the 
average citizen. He goes not to the polls, much to the 
chagrin of reformers who witness the machinery of pure 
democracy desecrated by machine men of the old school. 
And as for the socialists and the anarchists, under the 
guise of a new nomenclature their theories practically 
reinstate the present forms of authority, and in so far 
as they have abandoned purely theoretical attitudes for 
active propaganda, the same aristocratic tendencies 
appear among them, the destruction of which in others 
constituted their sole purpose as reformers. So long, 
in fact, as men work together in organizations, central- 
izing tendencies will prevail and the strong man will 
find there is need for him. 

But though this be true, does it mean his dominance 
is without limit? An all-prevailing principle of nature 
is adaptation, and it begins with the lowest forms of 
animal life. The dull-hued grasshopper escapes de- 
struction through lack of contrast to his surroundings, 
the tiger by tawny stripes increases his chances for prey, 
the East Indian butterfly maintains its numbers by a 
wonderfully exact resemblance to a dead leaf. Adapta- 
tion, to these creatures, is on the basis of survival ; failure 
means extinction. Were the executive submitted to 
definite tests, should he not also reveal adaptability? 

He is being submitted to such tests daily, and he does 
reveal adaptability. He is obliged to. Beneath the 



PRESSURE UPON EXECUTIVES 295 

stockholders as owners and above the subordinates as 
operators lies the executive's task, himself, as scores 
have felt it, ground between two millstones. He is 
the. go-between, the unifier, the harmonizer, in short, 
the executive. The city school superintendent, pressed 
hard by board of education, teachers' committees, 
educational reformers, parents' desires and pupils' 
claims, longs for the freedom he vainly supposes the 
merchant to enjoy. The merchant, however, besought 
by travelers for orders, employees for better wages and 
working conditions, by tithe gatherers for donations, 
and by the public for higher grade merchandising, is 
scarce an object of envy for him who would do as he 
pleases. Nor is any executive. He must meet the 
conflicting forces which fall upon him, distribute and 
direct them, urge them toward the composite goal, 
himself attacking and retreating, resolute and pliant, 
stern or mild as will best attain the results without 
which one never qualifies as executive. 

This demand for adaptability, happily, is something 
which the executive may with persistence prepare to 
meet. Surplus, either physical, mental, or material, is 
a prime requisite. It is the cushion which dissipated 
the jar. 1 Since the first duty of any organism, it may 

1 There are numberless methods by which this cushion is kept con- 
ditioned. Under strains which crush the ordinary man, Alexander on the 
march diverted himself with fox hunting or fowling, or, with the hosts 
of Persia before him and Arbela an event of the morrow, "sleeps more 
soundly than was his wont"; the Iron Chancellor discussed the "most 
serious subjects with a genial and careless bonhommie' n ; the Lord Protec- 
tor of England could lay aside "his serious and great business" and rival 
his secretaries in making verse ; the Conqueror of Mexico enjoyed a game 
of chance, jesting and laughing over his gains and losses ; the Founder 
of the Dutch Republic, far from the brooding figure implied by the term 
'Silent,' was a genial companion, at times making merry with beer, wine, 
and noisy poetry; the Prophet of Allah joined in childish games with 
his nephews, a leader, one of the followers declared, who was almost 
always smiling. 



296 EXECUTIVE'S ADAPTABILITY 

be said, is to maintain its life, should this surplus near 
depletion it ceases to part with the energy required for 
adjustments. Under pain of being robbed, the man of 
limited nerve capital, yet anxious to accomplish some 
great purpose, is forced to remain solitary. Herbert 
Spencer, marvelous example of a man for years never 
far removed from mental collapse, who yet completed a 
monumental work, greatly restricted his personal in- 
tercourse with guests, and especially shrank from argu- 
ment. "His common practice," writes Sir Francis 
Galton, "when pressed in a difficult position was to 
finger his purse and saying, 'I must not talk any more,' 
to abruptly leave the conversation unfinished." 1 It 
is also related of Darwin that when the guests who had 
called to discuss evolutionary theories engaged him in 
particularly animated conversation, he was unable to 
sleep that night. He lived in semi-seclusion at Downs, 
much more happy there, no doubt, than was Spencer 
in London, who, unable to adapt himself readily to other 
people's ways, fidgety and irritable when anybody or 
anything did not meet his own very decided views, 
moved from boarding house to boarding house. They 
were eminent intellectual leaders, yet neither of them, it 
is safe to say, could have superintended a factory suc- 
cessfully nor withstood the trials of a gubernatorial 
campaign. 

The surplus energy type need not thus shield itself, 
but presses forward, and in so doing perfects its adjust- 
ments. For the life processes issue in a great twofold 
adaptation, expansions and contractions, the former 
representing waxing, the latter waning, vitality — with 
all special adaptations secured during the expansive 
movements. 2 The outflowing life, the excess vitality 

1 Duncan, Herbert Spencer, 501. 
8 Baldwin, Mental Development, 249. 



EXPERIENCE 297 

which brings one into many experiences, provides the 
raw material from which adaptability is woven, and 
thus, though the surplus be in body, mind, or goods, 
unto him that hath it shall be given. 1 

To this surplus one may add experience. From his 
earliest youth equally at home in the Tuileries or 
the Louvre, among the motley crowd of Italian adven- 
turers, intriguing priests, dissolute gallants, ambitious 
nobles, and unscrupulous statesmen, or again in the 
retired strongholds of Protestantism, in the cottages of 
the peasantry or in the camps of the Huguenot veterans, 
Henry of Navarre developed that versatility which 
united France and won him a crown. Napoleon, when 
yet a sublieutenant of artillery, poring over military and 
politicaljtreatises, 2 Cortes planning a conquest while his 
followers wrangled over spoils or indulged in desultory 
trading with the natives, Nelson placing on paper before 
he sailed the maneuvers which subsequently crushed 
the combined fleets of France and Spain at Trafalgar, 
similarly represent adaptability in process. The sub- 

1 Napoleon illustrates how these elements are intertwined. At the 
military school of Brienne, an uncouth Corsican with scarcely a livre 
he could call his own, he was the butt of the school jokes and tricks. 
As the financial dictator of Europe he was surrounded with throngs of 
admirers. Both physique and temperament shared in the transforma- 
tion. " He was thin, and of delicate aspect, in youth ; his frame and his 
features seemed to expand with his fortunes, and he became heavy 
and obese as age advanced. Napoleon was taciturn and morose in 
youth ; under the influence of ever favoring fortune this reticence and 
austerity vanished. His tastes and sympathies seemed to expand, and 
Napoleon became joyous, talkative, fond of companionship, brilliant in 
social intercourse." Morris, Napoleon, 404, 418, slightly adapted. 

2 "His intellect was not confined by the narrow bounds of professional 
duties; he studied military history with intense earnestness; became 
one of the most learned of soldiers; and especially pored for laborious 
hours over military maps and plans of fortresses. . . . Nor were these 
the limits of that eager industry; he devoured treatises on law, phi- 
losophy, theology, and the art of government. Innumerable extracts 
and notes from his pen on these subjects remain unpublished." Morris 
Napoleon, 7. 



2 9 8 EXECUTIVE'S ADAPTABILITY 

conscious, long saturated by the particular materials, 
develops deftness in dealing with them. The amateur 
becomes expert. 

This process of experience getting as an aid to adapt- 
ability might well continue without check were it not 
for this limiting factor — old-f ogyism. The child's mind 
is a bundle of tendencies ready to be shaped ; the 
youth's mind is less plastic ; the mature mind indicates 
increasing rigidity ; and the rule in later life — to which 
there are indeed brilliant exceptions — is that conclu- 
sions once reached tend to remain undisturbed. Old- 
fogyism tends to encase us as the years pass. 

The danger need not be serious should one's occupation 
permit conservatism. The bishops, in our questionnaire 
returns, average 60.6 years in age, the chief justices of 
the state supreme courts 61.7, some eight or nine years 
older than the general average and surpassing the re- 
formers by thirteen years. 1 But the average executive, 
the man who commands the top-notcher sales force which 
invades every hamlet or whose orders quicken the pace 
of iron workers, trainmen or voters — he must not 
be very young nor yet very old. The executive, we 
may conclude, by the very nature of his work is an 
adjuster, and he must possess adaptability. 

Here then is the Scylla and Charybdis into which leader 

1 The Congressional Directories on being tabulated show little varia- 
tion in the House during the 5 2d, 54th, 57th, 59th, 60th, and 62d Con- 
gresses. In the 6 2d Congress, the Democratic Representatives averaged 
47.9, the Republican 51.7, an average of 49.4 for both; Democratic 
Senators 55.2, Republican 58.4, 57 for both; a total for all legislators of 
51 years. The reversal of 191 2 is thus commented upon by Public Opin- 
ion: "It is to a peculiar degree a Congress of new men. The old political 
war-horses are conspicuous by their absence, and those that are left are 
shorn in large part of their leadership. 'There is,' says a Washington 
correspondent in speaking of the Senate, 'something almost tragic about 
the vanishing of the "elder statesmen" from both parties; and in the 
House there has been a veritable sweep of the Goths and Vandals so far 
as the old order of things is concerned.'" April, 1913, 265. 



BALANCE 299 

after leader plunges to his destruction. Henry Clay's 
perorations so outdistanced safer judgment that bitter 
altercations often would follow, especially undesirable in 
the case of a candidate for the presidency. John 
Randolph's system of terrorism, effective in the politics 
of Charlotte, in Washington reacted upon him so vio- 
lently that he was driven from public life. Sam Houston, 
rivaling a circus in ability to attract Texans, gained no 
foothold in the U. S. Senate with his frontier eloquence. 
General Grant, carrying his military habits into the 
White House, precipitated one petty squabble after 
another, warped by his previous experience and out of 
touch, just as Clive was because of India, and the old 
Roman governors, through conducting in the provinces 
a legalized, military tyranny, with difficulty found their 
way back to the common civic level. It has become a 
proverb that uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, 
quite as applicable to obstinate general manager as to 
self-styled imperial demigods. 

The centralizing tendencies pointed out at the begin- 
ning of this chapter do provide niches of power for the 
strong man; they do not, however, as those of aristo- 
cratic yearnings would have us believe, condemn the 
common man in store or factory or state to the perpetual 
rule of oligarchs. The executive as he forges ahead is 
made to realize in no uncertain way that the age-old 
evolution of democracy has now reached the point where 
the checks upon a superior's power are tolerably effec- 
tive. As he motivates his men, the executive must hold 
their interest lest costly opposition be aroused or they 
themselves be lost to a competitor who offers them more 
for the same effort. The result is no autocrat, but a 
selected man, one who in his particular situation fits. 

The truly great leader, in consequence, represents 
variation, for variation alone removes him from the 



3 oo EXECUTIVE'S ADAPTABILITY 

mediocre ; he backs this up with strength and resolution, 
since, without these, thought products never burst into 
reality but remain forever fanciful ; but he has control 
as well. He stands aloof from idle theorizing, passing 
under ruthless scrutiny all available ideas until the 
most workable only is sorted out. This he seeks to 
realize. Ever discriminating between possible and im- 
possible, wielding power but seized with no giddiness of 
the tyrant, recognizing even when on the pinnacle of 
success its limits, he possesses effectiveness. In his 
character, therefore, strength is so combined with 
moderation, variation with adaptation, that balance is 
secured. 1 

EXERCISES 

i. Justify the saying "young men for action, old men for 
advice." 

2. Compare the span of effectiveness in jurists, major league 
ball players, and accountants. 

3. By what means may one postpone the cramp of age (old- 
fogyism) ? Give instances. 

4. Show that the form in which Christ's message was presented 
is one source of its vitality. 

5. Outline a plan by which adaptability may be developed. 

READINGS 

James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology, 199 — 228. 
Jordan and Kellog, Animal Life, Ch. VIII. 

1 Well has Mommsen analyzed the true greatness of Caesar: "In his 
character as a man as well as in his place in history, Caesar occupies a 
position where the great contrasts of existence meet and balance each 
other. Of the mightiest creative power and yet at the same time of 
the most penetrating judgment ; no longer a youth and not yet an old 
man ; of the highest energy of will and the highest capacity of execution ; 
filled with republican ideals and at the same time born to be a king ; a 
Roman in the deepest essence of his nature, and yet called to reconcile 
and combine in himself as well as in the outer world the Roman and the 
Hellenic types of culture — Caesar was the entire and perfect man." 
History of Rome, TV, 545-546. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

The Final Process : Assimilation 

"It is pleasant to see before others what is coming, but it is 
hard to wait until enough of the others see it to make the coming 
possible." — Henry D. Lloyd. 

"It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone; 
but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching." 

— Theodore Roosevelt. 

At the beginning of this final chapter the connection 
existing between the three different phases of our in- 
vestigation perhaps deserves restatement. In Part I was 
emphasized individuality, the divergence of the execu- 
tive from the average, the man himself being termed a 
variate and his ideas variations. In Part II were consid- 
ered the various methods through which the executive 
motivates his organization to the end that these varia- 
tions of his be realized in practice. In Part III has been 
discussed so far the reaction which his organization 
makes to the executive's purposes and methods, the 
net result of which is that the variations undergo selec- 
tion within the group and the leader himself is made 
adaptable. We now come to the final process in which 
these variations — forced home by the various methods 
of motivation, that is, by personality, imitation, sugges- 
tion, emulation, art, illusion, discipline, rewards, ideal- 
ism, and instruction ; selected and limited by apathy, 

301 



3 o2 THE FINAL PROCESS: ASSIMILATION 

opposition, and competition — become incorporated into 
the organization, living tissue henceforth. 

This process may be termed assimilation. 1 Its im- 
portance is usually overlooked, men being more taken 
by the energetic and apparently effective action of the 
individual as compared with the slow, lumbering gait 
at which whole groups move. Nevertheless, ideas 
unassimilated remain forever adventitious, a lesson 
which despots, impatient reformers, and efficiency experts 
learn only haltingly. Once assimilated, however, the 
executive's task is completed. 

The preceding fifteen chapters have considered in 
detail the methods by which the executive motivates 
men to carry out his ideas and the means by which such 
ideas are made easy to assimilate, and we may now 
draw from them certain more general principles : 

(i) The more numerous the points of contact, the 
more rapid the assimilation. — A judicious selection 
of men increases the points of contact. With the 
proper subordinates drawn to his standards, a Garibaldi, 
a McCormick, a Napoleon, a Carnegie sees his ideas 
readily externalized. But what sales manager could 
develop points of contact with tramps for sales force? 
Could Grant have succeeded with Coxey's army or James 
J. Hill with Marshall Field's employees ? None of them 
would attempt it. The organizer, therefore, courts suc- 
cess in advance; he builds his machine of parts which 
will enter into the required closeness of contact. 

Choosing from among the various methods of moti- 
vation those best adapted to the particular situation 
also increases the number of contact points. The vis- 
ionary statesman appeals to idealism, the contractor to 

1 See Simonds, "Social Assimilation," Am. Jour. Soc, VI, 790-822; 
VII, 53-79, 234-248, 386-404, 539-556; especially the "laws of assimi- 
lation," VI, 807. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES 303 

rewards; and each may be equally successful, but not 
vice versa. The skillful combination of methods is even 
more important. Suppose that in a certain situation 
nothing incongruous results from a combination of per- 
sonality, imitation, rewards, idealism, and instruction; 
the effect could scarcely fail to be mastering. It is such 
combined appeals — and everywhere they are far more 
readily secured than single appeals — that fully motivate. 
Industrial managers are broadening the old basis of 
rewards and discipline until, having added emulation, 
idealism, instruction, often others, they possess a safe 
foundation for man management. Politicians, to take 
their chief as an illustration, combine strength of per- 
sonality, deftness of suggestion, emulation, discipline, 
rewards, a naive inscrutability, and the loftiest appeal 
to idealism. 

In reality, however, it is interest which furnishes the 
greatest number of contact points. The lively, image- 
provoking idea cannot remain an alien. It penetrates 
and abides. Congenial to the mind, developing within 
consciousness in a cumulative way, it evokes the glow 
which makes the welding easy. The orator, commencing 
somewhat as an alien but establishing before long a 
bond of common relation between himself and audience, 
impels his hearers in the end to accept ideas which, 
advanced at first, would have been repudiated. The 
politician, " keeping his ear to the ground," reading 
shrewdly the popular mind, develops such numerous 
contact points that he often knows his constituents' 
desires better than they themselves do. This ability 
at its maximum makes a leader the mouthpiece, pos- 
sibly, of his age. He utters best that which all would 
have said. In the young Louis XIV the French nation 
saw an epitome of itself; in John Knox the heart and 
mind of the nation was revealed to itself in a measure 



30 4 THE FINAL PROCESS: ASSIMILATION 

beyond any other of his countrymen; their day and 
generation was uttered through Lincoln and Washing- 
ton, Cromwell and Bismarck, Napoleon and Caesar. 
These men all illustrated by practice that being in touch 
is a rule of effectiveness. 

(2). The less the opposition, the quicker [the assimi- 
lation. — Less opposition is aroused if the leader varies 
in one direction only, while conforming in general. 
Hamilton met Burr in duel because, he said, "the ability 
to be in future useful probably is inseparable from a con- 
formity with public prejudice in this particular." The 
municipal "boss," that horror to decent citizens, is cor- 
rupt, it is true ; yet in most respects he represents that for 
which his own constituents secretly long. A certain popu- 
lar prime minister in Spain never missed mass, but he emp- 
tied more monasteries than any other premier Alfonso has 
had since he began to reign. Any executive easily discov- 
ers enough minor points obnoxious to his organization to 
jeopardize the entire forward movement, if he but insist 
upon them. It is well to be diverted by no non-essen- 
tial, but, tolerant and conforming in general, press for 
one's main objective. 

Minimizing the degree of difference is another method 
through which less opposition is aroused. When his 
organization is custom bound, the executive decks his 
variations in ancient garb. 1 The energetic mayors of 

1 "Sir Henry Maine tells a delightful story of an Indian village which 
had had a water supply provided for it by a paternal British Govern- 
ment. The villagers were notified, as a matter of course, of the official 
regulations laid down for the proper use of the water. An East End 
district of London would be only too glad to get a good water supply 
on such terms. But to the patriarchal society of India the notion that 
customs could be manufactured by an official pen was simply incredible, 
and it was not until a wise official induced the village elders (by what 
means is not stated) to persuade the rank and file that the rules in ques- 
tion were really of immemorial antiquity, though their existence had 
only just been discovered, that the difficulty was solved." Jenks, 
History of Politics, 71. 



EMPHASIZING ESSENTIALS 305 

the palace, though dispossessing the Merwings of all 
power, nevertheless permitted the king to retain his 
royal title, long hair, and hanging beard. " Seated in 
a chair of state," says the old chronicler Eginhard, " he 
used to display an appearance of power by receiving 
foreign ambassadors on their arrival, and by giving them 
on their departure, as if on his own authority, those 
answers he had been taught or commanded to give." 

Similarly the barbarian conquerors, leaders like 
Clovis, Theodoric, Alaric, and Egbert, appropriated the 
character and attributes of the tribal chief they dis- 
possessed. The pedigrees of these chiefs generally led 
up to some mythical hero, long reverenced by the tribes- 
men as the ancestor of them all ; and the wily usurpers, 
through a series of fictions to be accepted only in a sim- 
ple age, persuaded their subjects that they really were 
members of these ancient families. 1 It is an old illu- 
sion, still in use. The politician cites to his hearers 
Aristotle's Politics and glibly quotes a line from Cicero, 
the anti-saloon agitator and the tax reformer draw 
deadly parallels between ourselves and the Fall of 
Rome, the general manager assures the suspicious work- 
men that he is merely extending and not introducing a 
new wage plan, the lawyer and the jurist juggle prece- 
dents until we marvel at the hybrid births of constitu- 
tion or code, the prophet in the pulpit buries his new- 
hatched projects deep under Holy Writ. Clad in such 
sober garb, the newcomer apparently is of the old and 
as such less disturbs the grooves of habit. 

On the other hand, when novelty is ascendant, the 
leaders furbish up their faded notions that these may 
impress as new. Captains of industry deck out in splen- 
did terminology the old truth that the laborer is worthy 
of his hire. Reformers eagerly seek converts to doctrines 

1 Jenks, op. cit., 85. 



3 o6 THE FINAL PROCESS: ASSIMILATION 

tested out centuries since and relegated to the social 
museums. The politician heralds as a discovery the 
class struggle, himself perhaps not yet having heard of 
Cleisthenes or the Gracchi. A difficult task it is to turn 
humanity's interest toward a long since explored and 
cobwebbed cavern; yet some have attained a bit of 
prestige and a following, too, by brushing aside these 
cobwebs and shouting, " El Dorado ! " 

Should opposition be aroused, assimilation is much 
hindered, since nothing makes one cling more tena- 
ciously to his opinions than having fought for them. 
The best policy in general seems to allow it vent. It is 
the mind surcharged that is dangerous. One executive 
arranges a special meeting at which irate stockholders 
are free to heckle him, another gives cordial considera- 
tion to every complaint, another meets each grievance 
with " Sit down. Let's talk things over." Still another 
— this a premier — invites the republican agitators to 
dine at the royal palace that he and the king may debate 
with them as they all break bread together. 

Such a plan does more than relieve unsafe pressure; 
it promotes mutual toleration. To such an extent has 
this toleration grown among civilized men that we may 
well be amazed to note how many the differences yet 
how few the violent clashes of opinions. Why have we 
gotten past the age when across each difference falls the 
shadow of a club? Discussion, endless talk wisely 
directed, is responsible for this progressive change. It 
has hindered precipitate action, that old failing of the 
race and by elevating the thinker over club wielder 
or fulminator, has put a premium upon intelligence. 1 
The roots of opposition thereupon are laid bare, and in 
the glare of reason is the remedy applied. Not every 
leader nor every cause, however, can undergo such 

1 Tardc, Social Laws, 130-132 ; Bagchot, Physics and Politics, Ch. V. 



MEETING COMPLAINTS 307 

searching dissection, and live. To all such — and they 
are many — were it better to endure those ills of oppo- 
sition they have than fly to others they know not of. 

(3) The slighter the variation the quicker its assimi- 
lation. The practical man hesitates to commit himself 
to detailed and far-reaching plans, into which are liable 
to enter factors now unsuspected and over which he 
can exercise no control. To him the views of Field 
Marshal von Moltke are much more sound : " It is a 
delusion to believe that a plan of war may be laid for a 
prolonged period and carried out at every point. The 
first collision with the enemy changes the situation 
entirely according to the result. Some things decided 
upon will be impracticable; others which originally 
seemed impossible become feasible." This view pushed 
farther gives us the opportunist, fashioning his creeds 
as the times demand. 

Some men do prefer to work at close range to their 
task, idealists perhaps but always practical and never 
far removed from their followers. To the unscalable 
summit Roosevelt never points ; nor does Carnegie nor 
Wanamaker nor, in fact, most of the executives now on 
the broad plains of reality guiding humanity from day 
to day. The man whose efforts are considered success- 
ful only as they meet the test of his firm's balance sheet 
cannot direct men in terms of a thousand years ; such 
generalizations and prophecies he may not venture upon 
save at club or banquet. 

Such nearness to their work some men assume by 
consistently minimizing their variations. The English 
labor leaders as they sit on the benches in parliament 
wear the same workingmen's caps as their comrades do 
in the shops. Jefferson, condemning the formalities 
and elegance of Washington and Adams, expressed an 
indifference to dress and the conventional rules of 



3 o8 THE FINAL PROCESS: ASSIMILATION 

society; and although his equipage as president was 
similar to that used by the nobility in Paris or London 
and his inauguration attended with as much pomp and 
ceremony as the physical conditions would permit, widely 
circulated the pleasant fiction that he rode unattended 
and hitched his horse to a post ! Jackson would have 
the plain people feel he was ever on their level — even 
in manners ; in reality, his courtly bearing won all the 
ladies, Mrs. Webster, according to her husband, being 
for him decidedly. Rudeness with him was deliberate 
and convenient. 

Whatever the means they see fit to employ, all men 
such as these maintain close relations with their respec- 
tive groups ; in so doing they represent a more imme- 
diate effectiveness. 

Others vary so widely that clear appraisal is not at 
once possible ; while some shout " genius," others shout 
" fool." To the future alone is left the final verdict. 
Meanwhile, not overlooking the thousands rightly termed 
cranks and thereupon suppressed, for lack of discern- 
ment precious gifts in human form daily are crushed out, 
and what might have been never is ; others, — as was 
said of Charles Fox, possibly could have been said of 
William Jennings Bryan, — though less rudely treated, 
preach to the deaf ears of one generation great principles 
which become accepted truisms in the next. A Darwin, 
a Luther, a Jesus scatters the seed of a thousand years 
upon what is then sterile ground. It is not given such 
men to witness the harvest. 

Bound up within the width of variation which he 
espouses is the leader's choice between the immediate 
and the remote, opportunism and reformation, fellow- 
ship and distinction. The intellectual leader, it has been 
shown, tends toward wider variation, and to him no 
doubt should more often be accorded the title of world 



IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVENESS 309 

genius. It is he who alone in the travail of his spirit 
gives birth to the idea destined to master the multitude. 
But the executive, no solitary mountain climber, no 
propounder of absolutes or ultimates, it is true, empha- 
sizes what is feasible and, close knit to his fellows, moves 
with them toward the goal. He, too, has served. 

(4) In general, the more numerous the agents of assimi- 
lation in relation to the assimilated the more rapid the 
process. Mass impact usually breaks down individual 
resistance or realigns the smaller of two contending 
groups. The Slavonian, buffeted about by American- 
ism at every turn, parts with his native tongue, native 
costume, native mannerisms, and, before long, dresses, 
bargains, and swears in true Yankee style. On the fringe 
of Little Judea, that compact stronghold of Hebrewism 
planted in New York's East Side, man after man de- 
taches himself from the inner core by moving north- 
ward toward Harlem, in the end being engulfed by the 
city. It is mass which here operates with cumulative 
force. 

It would follow as a corollary that time is required to 
develop a conquering cause. Mohammed during the 
first three years of his mission made only forty converts, 
these, too, being young persons, strangers, and slaves. 
Jesus left but twelve, humble folk they were, to preach 
the gospel unto all men, and his faith, like Mohammed's, 
for generations moved only among the lowly. The 
anti-slavery sentiment Garrison found for several years 
too weak to remove the editor of the Liberator from ab- 
ject poverty, the self-binder industry McCormick with 
greatest difficulty urged from its blacksmith-shop origin, 
the petroleum field was not expanded until year after 
year a certain lynx-eyed Rockefeller urged it forward by 
dint of persistence and not overscrupulous methods. It 
is hard to develop momentum. 



310 THE FINAL PROCESS: ASSIMILATION 

The momentum once established, however, adherents 
multiply. Moody by evangelizing Brooklyn, Phila- 
delphia, and even Chicago, fulfilled a prophecy made 
once when his hearers were only a handful, " It is slow 
work, but if you want to kindle a fire, you collect a bit 
of pine whittlings, light them with a match, and keep 
blowing until they blaze. Then you pile on the wood ! " 
Mohammed's cause once under way unified Arabia and 
threatened before long to engulf all Europe. Jesus' 
twelve have since multiplied into four hundred ninety- 
four millions, an assimilating host bent, its leaders now 
declare, upon the Evangelization of the World in this 
Generation. In a very real sense it thus becomes true 
that nothing succeeds like success. 

Yet the outcome does not rest solely upon numbers. 
Were such true, the established simply because it was 
the established would be self -perpetuating ; and this 
clearly is not always so. A variation, born in isolation 
but nurtured by resolute breast, winning a minority and 
these well-organized and motivated, again and again 
has lain the majority helpless before it. The truth 
here entailed perhaps justifies statement as the final 
principle. 

(5) Superiority tends to dominate. Who does not 
seek power and who would not ascend into the high 
places before men ? In truth, scarce no one ; the well- 
girded, the altruistic, the designing, the visionary, the 
hopeless incompetent, each yearns to direct and, if re- 
sponsive to the inner motive alone, would extend his 
sway over group after group of subordinates. In so 
doing, his lust for dominance, for self-expansion and 
personal profit very possibly would be gratified; but 
what of the claims of the many ? 

He who would correctly interpret men and their re- 
quirements must view both in terms of the struggle for 



MOST FOR LEAST 311 

existence. Humanity began in the jungle, and, guided 
by one central principle, has slowly pushed its way to- 
ward the open. This principle is nothing less than 
greatest gain for least effort, the so-called law of parsimony. 
To maintain his hold, the executive must square with 
it. Not every man who says " Go here," " Go there," 
sees men spring to do his bidding. His commands ring 
true and he himself qualifies as an executive only when 
these men if obedient to him produce with greater effec- 
tiveness and increased benefit to themselves. Subordi- 
nates place themselves under his control because they 
have wants, and their efforts directed by him yield them 
increased gratifications. 

Unmistakably in the end, the executive must realize 
for his co-workers the fullest liberty compatible with 
order, the most thorough equality consistent with prog- 
ress, the completest fraternity possible with self-preser- 
vation — himself a toiler that others through him may 
rise. The last word of leadership is thus one with the 
supreme appeal of Christian morals, he that loseth his 
life shall find it. 

EXERCISES 

1. Why do men so often complain that their wonderful plans 
dwindle into such meager accomplishments? 

2. Was his generation at fault in opposing elements in Christ's 
teaching we now prize? 

3. Discuss: "All progress is due to the coercion of an indif- 
ferent majority by a determined minority." 

4. Comparing the executives of the past with those of the 
present, what policies in the control of men will likely be worked 
out in the future? 

5. Summarize briefly the chief functions of an executive. 

READINGS 

Ward, Applied Sociology, Ch. XI. 



APPENDIX 

A STATISTICAL STUDY OF EXECUTIVES 



APPENDIX 

In the preceding pages, the general discussion was 
supplemented by data of a statistical nature. These 
data, because they probably held very little interest for 
the majority of readers, were not commented upon at 
length in the text. However, for the benefit of those 
desiring further details concerning this material, the 
following information is being presented here : 

i. The Problem. In studying executives, it is both 
important and interesting to raise the questions : In 
what respects, if any, do they differ from ordinary men ? 
Moreover, do they differ to the extent that a type group 
is formed ? These questions of variability, if their answer 
in full be attempted, raise a wide variety of considera- 
tions. For instance, are boys reared in wealthy homes 
more likely to become executives as compared with boys 
from humble homes? Does belonging to a religious 
organization, as the Catholic Church, increase one's 
chances of succeeding as a railroad president ? Are good 
looks a handicap to the candidate for Congress? 

It is true, these questions appear somewhat theoretical, 
but in fact they are far less so than many over which end- 
less discussions have taken place, and are still, for that 
matter. It is obvious at the outset, therefore, that one 
cannot with profit enter into all the ramifications of the 
questions stated at the beginning of the above paragraph. 
All phases of these questions are not equally valuable, 
for one thing, and another restricting factor is found in 
the method to be applied in solving the particular phase 
selected, to which we now turn. 

2. Methods of Solution. In seeking a solution to the 
questions stated, the executive's variation from the or- 
dinary man and trueness to his own type, the first method 
likely to impress one as feasible, is personal observation. 
In fact, this is a method the author employed diligently 

314 



APPENDIX 315 

and with profit to himself when in the course of his regu- 
lar duties he for several months had daily opportunity 
to converse with from ten to fifteen chief executives. 
Moreover, the field one is able to cover by personal in- 
vestigation may be extended considerably by conferences 
with friends and acquaintances, readings in daily papers 
and magazines, and a persistent study of biographies. 

This material, however great the light it throws on the 
problems under consideration, lacks quantitative definite- 
ness. It was for this reason that data of a statistical 
sort were felt to be worth while, partly for the informa- 
tion contained in the data themselves, partly as a check 
on the other material of the investigation. 

3. Factors Investigated. When it came to deciding 
upon the factors to be investigated, much depended upon 
the particular means employed in order to obtain the 
information. Such possible methods as personal inves- 
tigation and enumerators were rejected in view of the 
author's finances and time available, and a question- 
naire to be sent through the mails was decided upon. 

The problem at once arose as to what questions should 
be submitted. Needless to say, the information one 
would like to receive from these executives would cover 
an extremely broad scope; in fact one could without 
difficulty set down a list of forty or fifty questions which 
it would be desirable to know about. It does not take 
long experience in statistics to prove that desirable is 
to be strictly subordinated to possible. 

In general, the more questions asked the fewer replies 
received. The decision as to full information or numer- 
ous replies thus becomes a matter of relative emphasis, 
for though the investigator may have either he cannot 
have both. A few preliminary tests in this particular 
instance indicated that cutting down the number of 
questions so rapidly increased the percentage of replies 



316 APPENDIX 

that the number in the end was reduced to six. Later 
on, after about two thirds of the blanks were sent out, a 
seventh question, closely related to the two which pre- 
ceded it on the schedule, was added. 

4. The Schedule. In order to increase still further the 
percentage of replies a number of details were given care- 
ful attention. The questions themselves were printed 
on a postal card, the investigator's name and address 
being placed on the opposite side. These questions were 
made simple to understand, easy to answer, and the in- 
formation they called for offered little opportunity for bias. 

The questions, however, being of a personal nature, 
the recipient might feel them somewhat inquisitorial, 
unless this danger were provided for. In order to guard 
against the danger and at the same time encourage the 
executive to reply, a short explanation was given of the 
purpose of the investigation and the importance of in- 
cluding this particular reply in the data. To lessen the 
clerical work involved, this explanation was printed on 
the bottom of the letterhead, the brief letter above being 
typed or hand written. 

These, no doubt, are minor matters, yet any one fa- 
miliar with the questionnaire method will agree that the 
percentage of replies received, as shown in the statistical 
summary, is gratifyingly high. It is all the more so when 
one considers that these men represent the most impor- 
tant executives in the United States. 

A sample of the schedule is here shown reduced : 



£s* rawgfjt (gffls) $ng!)t OSf)- 

$Uje at fftarriage 

Number of Cfjtloren born to boh 

" " " " * l oour father 

" « " " " u paternal grantotatjjet. 



APPENDIX 317 

5. Accuracy of Replies. The proportion of schedules 
completely filled out was very high. For instance, in 
answers regarding the weight and the number of chil- 
dren the percentage was approximately ninety-seven and 
ninety-nine per cent respectively. As an indication of 
accuracy, these percentages are favorable. 

Each individual filling out the schedule, it is needless 
to say, was responsible for the accuracy of his answers, 
and in only certain cases was the correctness of his state- 
ments even questioned. In these instances, the figures 
were so irregular as to arouse suspicion and a letter of 
inquiry was thereupon sent. If no reply was received, 
the item was dropped from the list. 

It is quite certain that slight changes in the schedule 
by which the degree of accuracy desired would have 

been indicated, as "Age in years , months ,'" 

" Height in feet , inches , quarter inches ," 

would have been useful in increasing the accuracy of these 
returns. In regard to height, it was decided after some 
little consideration that the direction " without shoes" 
would draw more accurate replies than the direction 
"with shoes," though this supposed benefit would be 
partly offset by the contrast with the neighboring 
item with its direction "with clothing." Later on for 
purposes of comparison it was found necessary to deal 
with these height returns as with shoes, by adding one 
inch. It is interesting to note, however, that whereas 
six feet is an attractive figure and might be expected to 
show an undue proportionate frequency such as the cen- 
sus returns show at zero and five in age classifications, the 
frequency distribution so favorable to the item six feet 
was compiled from schedule items five feet eleven inches, 
the statements of, six feet on the schedules themselves 
showing a sharp decrease in frequency. 

6. Scope of Inquiry. It being impossible to secure data 



318 APPENDIX 

from every executive in the United States, the selection 
of representative cases was necessary. Business has been 
represented by nine groups of men, a total of 495 cases, 
as shown in the statistical summary. Political leaders 
comprise three groups, 267 cases ; law two groups, 93 
cases. Public service includes four groups, 150 cases. 
Labor leaders are represented by two groups, 54 cases, 
reformers by four groups of 120 cases, religious leaders 
by three groups totaling 273 cases, educational leaders 
by three groups of 162 cases. The last might be termed 
in a general way public leaders, and comprises groups 25, 
33, and 34, a total of 158 cases. The other groups were 
studied for comparative purposes, as has been indicated 
in previous chapters. 

It may seem that undue emphasis has been placed upon 
the business field, 495 copies of the questionnaire having 
been sent to business men as compared to 267 to political 
leaders or 120 to reformers. The validity of this criti- 
cism, if offered, would depend largely upon one's concep- 
tion of the term " executive." In view of the treatment 
of the subject in the preceding chapters, it is believed 
that the questionnaire has not given undue emphasis to 
any particular group of executives, although the reader 
is in position to decide for himself upon this point. 

The composition of the various groups is commented 
upon briefly in the notes following the statistical sum- 
mary. It may be added that in selecting the names 
to which questionnaires were to be sent, an earnest ef- 
fort was made to secure true samples. 

7. Adequacy of Data. Since returns have been tabu- 
lated for numerous groups of leaders, one test concerning 
the adequacy of data is whether or not these returns from 
the various groups seem to harmonize. As shown in the 
statistical summary, this appears to be the case. 

It happens, moreover, that this test can be applied 



APPENDIX 319 

in a somewhat different way. After some 1600 copies of 
the questionnaire were sent out and the returns tabu- 
lated, it was thought well to draw up additional lists 
and secure returns from these for the purpose of testing 
the first results. An additional question was added to 
the second questionnaire, the number of children born to 
the paternal grandfather, and, as is shown in the statis- 
tical summary, the questionnaire sent to groups 2, 5, 6, 
8, 9, 14, 15. 16, 17, 18, 36, 37, 43, 44, 45, and 46. The 
returns from these sixteen additional groups appear to 
substantiate the results first secured. 

In such anthropometric data as height and weight, a 
normal frequency distribution is to be expected. Hence 
the degree of skewness encountered is another test 
concerning the adequacy of the data here presented. 
The frequency tables on height and weight given on 
later pages have been studied from this point of view, 
and the degree of skewness shown appears to justify 
the view that the data are adequate for the purpose 
to which they have been put in the preceding chapters. 
It may be added that the following rough measure of 
skewness was the one employed : 

, 3 (mean — median) 

skewness = — A : — ^— : — ; — =— ^ • 

standard deviation 

The use of this formula is discussed critically in 
Yule's Theory of Statistics (see especially page 150). 
The frequency tables on pages 325-331 may be made 
use of by those desiring to apply more precise measures 
for determining the degree of skewness. 



320 



APPENDIX 



STATISTICAL 





Questionnaire 




Age 

AT 




Group (a) 






Age 


Mar- 


Un- 






riage: 


MAR- 




Sent 


Rec'd 




Aver- 
age 


RIED 


i Railroad Presidents 


IOO 


55 


55-5 


26.7 


I 


2 Insurance Presidents 


50 


39 


49.2 


28.O 


4 


3 Manufacturers 


50 


32 


62.5 


26.5 


1 


4 Merchants 


50 


32 


60.7 


29.2 


2 


5 Sales Managers 


60 


23 


42.8 


27.I 


2 


6 Foremen Roundhouses 


25 


9 


40.1 


25-5 





7 Factory Supts. 


35 


18 


45.7 


25-9 


1 


8 Bank Presidents 


50 


34 


53-7 


27.6 





9 Corporation Directors 


75 


45 


54-5 


27.2 


3 


io Governors 


65 


46 


51.2 


28.6 


5 


ii U. S. Senators 


9i 


48 


55-8 


26.4 


3 


12 Mayors 


no 


69 


46.8 


28.1 


5 


13 Chief Justices State Courts 


45 


32 


61.7 


28.4 


1 


14 Pres. State Bar Assoc. 


48 


38 


54-o 


29.0 





15 Chiefs of Police 


5o 


21 


57-o 


24.7 





16 Chiefs of Fire Dept. 


25 


15 


57-2 


26.8 





17 Supts. Street Cleaning 


25 


9 


52.4 


26.0 





18 Prison Wardens 


50 


28 


53-3 


25.8 


1 


19 Pres. Labor Organizations 


40 


26 


48.3 


24.6 





20 A. F. L. Organizers 


14 


7 


43-6 


27-5 





21 Socialist Organizers 


20 


11 


48.7 


30.2 





22 Anti-Saloon League Org. 


20 


13 


47-6 


24-3 





23 Anti-Saloon League Officials 


21 


13 


54-o 


25-3 





24 Reformers 


59 


42 


48.6 


26.7 


3 


25 World's Work List 


58 


33 


55-6 


28.9 


2 


26 Pres. Fraternal Orders 


61 


40 


52.6 


24.6 


3 


27 Bishops 


ii5 


83 


60.6 


26.8 


4 


28 Y. M. C. A. Secretaries 


TO 


9 


49.0 


26.1 





29 Pres. Religious Org. 


28 


15 


57-2 


27.0 


1 


30 University Presidents 


76 


61 


51-8 


27.6 





31 City Schools Supts. 


36 


26 


52.6 


28.0 


1 


32 Economists & Sociologists 


50 


36 


48.9 


28.0 





33 Lecturers 


50 


33 


46.8 


25-4 


4 







APPENDIX 




321 


SUMMARY 












Number of Children 




Children 


Weight 
<*> 








Childless 






Height (h) 


Gen. Av. (c) 


Av. per 
Fam. (d) 




Father (e) 


Grand- 
father (/) 




3.63 


3-70 


2 


5.78 




186.3 


5:10.9 I 


2.74 


3-05 


2 


6.02 


6.4I 


175-2 


5: 9-7 2 


3-50 


3.61 


5 


6-53 




169.9 


5: 9.0 3 


340 


3-64 


7 


6.36 




163.7 


5: 9.4 4 


I.82 


2.00 


4 


5-47 


5-50 


182.8 


5:10.1 5 


2.00 


2.00 


2 


7. 11 


6.87 


177.0 


5: 9-3 6 


2.6l 


2.78 


2 


6.05 




186.7 


5: 9-8 7 


2.85 


2.85 


3 


5.6i 


8.00 


186.8 


5:10.7 8 


2.88 


3-09 


4 


6.17 


"6.41 


179.8 


5 : 10.4 9 


2.30 


2.58 


9 


6.80 




182.0 


5: 11. 2 10 


3.14 


3-35 


6 


7-43 




185.0 


5: 10.6 11 


2.79 


3.01 


7 


6.66 




176.9 


5: 10.0 12 


3.21 


3.32 


3 


7-56 




169.0 


5'- 9-6 13 


3-o7 


3.o7 


5 


7-13 


6.88 


171. 5 


5:10.5 14 


4.09 


4.09 


4 


7.09 


6.00 


202.4 


5:11-1 15 


4.00 


4.00 


1 


5.8o 


541 


189.4 


5:10.3 16 


3.62 


3.62 


2 


6.88 


7-25 


216.7 


5:n.3 17 


3-67 


3-8i 


2 


7.92 


8.11 


191. 2 


5:n.3 18 


3-69 


3-69 


2 


7-34 




186.3 


5 : 10.4 19 


3.83 


3.83 





6-33 




186.1 


5: 8.2 20 


2.50 


2-54 


3 


9-36 




171. 


5:10.8 21 


2.46 


2.46 


4 


6.15 




184.9 


5:10.3 22 


4.25 


4-25 





6.00 




176.3 


5: 9.2 23 


2.76 


2.91 


- 9 


5.12 




181. 7 


5:11.4 24 


2.51 


2.67 


5 


6.36 




182.2 


5:10.3 25 


2.60 


2.81 


3 


66.2 




190.4 


5: 9.6 26 


4.27 


4-55 


7 


6-57 




176.4 


5: 10.6 27 


3-n 


3. 11 


2 


5.00 




188.6 


5 '• 10.3 28 


3.60 


3.85 


1 


5-66 




169.8 


5 : 10.4 29 


2.62 


2.62 


12 


5.85 




181.6 


5 : 10.8 30 


2.84 


2.84 


2 


5.80 




178.6 


5:10.4 31 


2-55 


2-55 


3 


544 




170.8 


5:10.8 32 


2.90 


3.32 


3 


6.81 




162.3 


5: 9-2 33 



322 



APPENDIX 





Questionnaire 




Age 

AT 




Group (a) 






Age 


Mar- 
riage: 


UN- 






MAR- 




Sent 


Rec'd 




Aver- 
age 


RIED 


34 Publishers 


50 


34 


56.5 


28.2 


O 


35 Psychologists 


50 


43 


45-o 


30.O 


6 


36 Philosophers 


50 


37 


44.2 


29.2 


2 


37 Inventors 


45 


26 


47.8 


26.5 


3 


38 Musicians 


5o 


23 


51.8 


30.O 


2 


39 Artists 


5o 


3i 


53-2 


30-4 


7 


40 Authors 


50 


42 


55.5 


28.2 


7 


41 Preachers Small Towns 


5o 


32 


45-7 


26.2 





42 Pres. Small Colleges 


35 


26 


50.1 


26.5 





43 Principals of Schools 


75 


30 


35-2 


26.5 


10 


44 Station Agents 


50 


29 


33-i 


23-7 


1 


45 County Attorneys 


50 


32 


40.3 


27.2 


4 


46 Salesmen 


100 


55 


31.6 


26.8 


17 


47 Farmers 


75 


32 


60.5 


26.4 





48 Bankrupts 


20 












(a) The source of these names in some cases, perhaps, deserve 
a brief explanation: Lists 3, 4, 38, 39, and 40 were derived from 
Who's Who; 5 are from a large commercial organization ; 6 are from 
various division points, several roads being included ; 7 came from 
large industrial concerns; 2, 8, and 9 were derived from finan- 
cial directories; 20, 21, 22, and 23 were furnished me from the 
respective headquarters; 12 were from mayors of the largest 
cities ; 24 refers to the executive secretaries of various reformative 
organizations, such as the good roads movement, the abolition of 
child labor; 25 was drawn from the fifty-eight men whose pictures 
were given a full page in the World's Work during several months 
in 191 1 (foreigners and accounts due to death were excluded, as 
what was wanted was a list of men molding affairs at present) ; 
28 came from the list furnished by headquarters ; 30 refers to the 
state universities and larger privately endowed institutions; 

32 and 36 were drawn from the catalogs of leading universities; 

33 was derived from magazines devoted to lyccums ; 35 from 
Cattell's American Men of Science; 37 was kindly furnished by 
Munn and Company ; 44 and 45 were picked at random from va- 



APPENDIX 



323 



Number en 


' Children 




Children 


Weight 
(g) 








Childless 






Height (k) 


Gen. Av. (c) 


Av. per 
Fam. (d) 




Father (e) 


Grand- 
father (J) 




3-44 


3-44 


2 


6.79 




I7I.9 


5- 7-9 34 


2.l8 


2.54 


5 


6.21 




155-3 


5: 9-7 35 


I.70 


I.80 


10 


5.62 


6.35 


158.4 


5: 9.6 36 


3.OO 


3-39 


3 


6-53 


5-33 


169.4 


5:10.2 37 


2.13 


2-33 


6 


5-73 




161. 9 


5: 5-6 38 


2.32 


3.00 


3 


5.6i 




165-7 


5:10.1 39 


2.28 


2.74 


5 


5-63 




158.0 


5 : 10.2 40 


3-34 


3-34 


1 


6.84 




159-4 


5: 8.8 41 


346 


346 


2 


6.53 




164.0 


5: 9.6 42 


1.70 


2.55 


3 


7-34 


7.46 


157-6 


5: 9-7 43 


2.00 


2.07 


4 


6.03 


7.00 


154.6 


5: 94 44 


2.21 


2.62 


6 


6.38 


8.44 


162.4 


5: 8.1 45 


.96 


1.52 


14 


4.96 


5.38 


I57-0 


5: 9.1 46 


5.93 


5-93 





6.84 




166.9 


5 : 10 47 
48 



rious sections of the country ; 46 were furnished by two leading 
typewriter companies ; 48 came from the lists given by the New 
York Times. The others were secured in the main from directories 
and the World Almanac, 191 1 and 191 2 editions. The selections 
were made according to the rules of sampling. 

(b) This refers only to those married. 

(c) Refers to total number, including both married and un- 
married. 

(d) Refers only to those married; also to number born. 

(e) Refers to number born, not necessarily to number living. 

(f) Same as above. This question was not included in all the 
questionnaires sent; hence the small number of returns. 

(g) Weight includes clothing in all instances. It is the prac- 
tice in gymnasiums to deduct ten pounds for clothing should net 
weight be desired. 

(h) Height is given in feet, inches, and tenths of inches, and 
includes shoes in all instances. Gymnasiums deduct one inch for 
shoes if net height is desired. 



324 APPENDIX 

8. Table of Averages. The preceding table presents the 
general results of the investigation, the material being sum- 
marized in a series of averages. These averages were ar- 
rived at by adding the items shown on the original sched- 
ules, and hence are more accurate as averages than those 
given in later frequency tables which were arrived at by 
using the values of the mid-point of the class interval. The 
notes following the table perhaps will make sufficiently plain 
the source from which the original names and addresses 
were secured, and the definition of the terms employed in 
the table's headings. The first two columns naturally 
interest the author much more than they do the reader. 

9. Results. In stating briefly some of the results of 
this investigation it may be pointed out that the author, 
not being a technician in statistics nor primarily in- 
terested in statistical technique, has not applied the re- 
finements of such technique to these data. He has made 
use of the rougher methods only since they seemed ade- 
quate for the purpose at hand. Nevertheless, it is hoped 
that by presenting the following frequency tables, those 
who desire to apply some of the more refined methods 
may have available raw material with which to work. 

A number of interesting conclusions might be drawn 
from the material collected, but we must forego dis- 
cussion of all save the two main questions proposed 
at the beginning of the inquiry ; that is, the difference if 
any between executives and others, and the possibility 
of their undergoing selection which would result in the 
formation of a type group. In the preceding chapters, 
these questions have come up for consideration, but at 
this point certain statistical evidence may be presented 
and summarized. We shall accordingly consider the 
material bearing on age, height, weight, age at marriage, 
number of children, joining of associations, and voca- 
tional persistence. 



APPENDIX 



325 



10. Frequency Tables. The terms used as titles in the 
following tables perhaps deserve a brief explanation. 
" Executives" are the first thirty-four groups shown in 
the above statistical summary. " Lesser Executives" 
are the small town leaders, groups forty-one to forty- 
seven inclusive in the above summary. " Intellectuals " 
are groups thirty-five to forty inclusive. " Merchants and 
Manufacturers" are from the National Cyclopedia of Biog- 
raphy ; "Artists and Authors" are from the same source. 
" Reformers" and " Non- Reformers " are those discussed 
on pages 265-268 of the text. "Policyholders" are from 
the Medico- Actuarial Mortality Investigation mentioned 
in Chapter III. The tables will now follow in order. 



Frequency Distribution According to Age 



Age in Years 


Execu- 
tives 


Lesser 
Execu- 
tives 


Non-Re- 
formers 


Reformers 


Intel- 
lectuals 


20 — 


2 


20 








25- 


8 


30 




9 


3 


30- 


19 


41 




16 


10 


35- 


77 


31 


3 


15 


24 


40- 


132 


28 


4 


26 


27 


45- 


170 


22 


7 


17 


38 


5°~ 


222 


20 


18 


11 


29 


55- 


135 


12 


23 


7 


16 


60- 


136 


12 


23 


3 


8 


65- 


81 


7 


16 


1 


10 


70- 


52 


3 


10 


3 


5 


75- 


23 


3 


4 




8 


80- 


n 


2 


3 




2 


85- 














90- 


2 








1 


Number of cases 


1070 


231 


in 


108 


181 


Average age 


53-7 


4i-5 


57-7 


40.9 


50-4 


Probable error 


±.228 


±.607 


±.614 


±.668 


±.620 


Standard deviation 


11. 1 


13-7 


9.6 


10.3 


12.4 


Coefficient of variation 


21 


33 


16 


25 


25 



326 



APPENDIX 



Frequency Distribution According 


to Height 1 


Height in Inches 


Execu- 


Lesser 
Execu- 


Intel- 


Policyholders 




tives 


tives 


lectuals 




53- 








1 


54- 








O 


55- 








4 


56- 








5 


57- 








17 


58- 








19 


59- 








38 


60- 








396 


61- 


3 






441 


62- 


1 


I 




1,198 


63- 


2 


2 


2 


2,625 


64- 


2 


4 


I 


6,59i 


65- 


6 


11 


2 


12,130 


66- 


34 


21 


9 


22,057 


67- 


42 


24 


17 


28,086 


68- 


93 


36 


28 


37,544 


69- 


114 


42 


27 


32,248 


70- 


150 


32 


23 


32,718 


71- 


156 


27 


20 


23,014 


72- 


176 


13 


28 


14,585 


73- 


no 


11 


17 


4,783 


74- 


74 





15 


2,342 


75- 


39 


1 


4 


669 


76- 


16 




2 


229 


77- 


14 




2 


53 


78- 


3 






17 


79- 


1 






3 


80- 


1 






3 


81- 








2 


82- 











83- 








1 


Number of cases 


1037 


225 


197 


221,819 


Average height 


71.4 


69-3 


70.7 


68.5 


Probable error 


± -054 


±.103 


±.129 


zb .003 


Standard eleviation 


2.6 


2-3 


2.7 


2.4 


Coefficient of variation 


4 


3 


4 


4 



1 The accuracy of the conclusions to be drawn from these figures 
would have been increased were they classified strictly according to the 



APPENDIX 327 

Frequency Distribution According to Weight 1 



Weight in Pounds 


Executives 


Lesser Ex- 
ecutives 


Intellectuals 


IOO — 


I 




I 


no— 


4 




2 


120 — 


22 


6 


14 


130- 


36 


29 


16 


140 — 


85 


47 


29 


150- 


80 


46 


34 


160 — 


144 


42 


35 


170— 


165 


19 


26 


180- 


145 


17 


21 


190 — 


127 


14 


9 


200— 


85 


5 


7 


210 — 


66 


6 


5 


220— 


49 


1 


1 


230- 


18 


1 


1 


240 — 


3 







250- 


14 




1 


260 — 


3 






270 — 


4 






280- 


1 






Number of cases 


1052 


233 


202 


Average weight 


181.1 


161. 


162.9 


Probable error 


±.58 


±•95 


± -115 


Standard deviation 


28.1 


21.5 


24-3 


Coefficient of variation 


16 


13 


IS 



element of race. A question concerning race was not added to the sched- 
ule, owing to the belief that the decreased number of replies would be more 
serious than the importance of the information justified. An examina- 
tion of the names to which the questionnaire was sent does not indicate 
that this element has been of importance, save perhaps in one group, the 
musicians. Here are found several names such as CaufTman, Goetschen, 
and Huss ; and the musician's low rank in height, as shown in the statisti- 
cal summary, is probably due in part to the racial factor. 

1 As was shown in the preceding table on age distribution, these three 
groups differ in average age and hence a correction may be made in this 
respect. On the basis of the Medico- Actuarial Mortality Investigation 
(page 13), the lesser executives if equivalent in age to the executives 
would be approximately 3.4 lb. heavier, and the intellectuals if equiva- 



328 



APPENDIX 



Frequency Distribution According to Age at Marriage 



Age in Years 


Execu- 
tives 


Lesser 
Execu- 
tives 


Intel- 
lectual 


Merchants 
and Manu- 
facturers 


Artists 

AND 

Authors 


is- 

20 — 

25- 
30- 

35- 
40- 

45- 
5o- 

55- 
60- 

65- 


IO 

334 

426 

161 

69 

15 

9 

1 





2 


3 

75 
92 
28 
2 
2 

1 


I 
29 
83 
37 
11 

13 
2 


2 
26 
29 
22 

6 





1 


I 
18 
27 
12 

8 
2 
1 

1 


Number of cases 
Average age 
Probable error 
Standard deviation 
Coefficient of variation 


1027 

27.7 

±.n5 

5-5 

20 


203 
26.6 

± .207 

4.4 

17 


176 

29.6 
±.289 

5-7 
19 


86 
28.0 

±413 
5-7 
21 


70 

25.2 

±.628 

7.8 

31 



lent in age to the executives would be approximately .7 lb. lighter. 
These corrections, as will be recognized by those familiar with refined 
methods, are rough approximations only. 

As was pointed out in an earlier chapter, comparable measurements of 
the policyholders are lacking. But policyholders of approximately the 
same age as the average for the executives (53 yr., which is the age of 
each case and not as with the executives an average age, with some above 
and some under) and the same average height as all the policyholders 
(86.5 in.) are 164.5 lb- weight. 



APPENDIX 



329 



Frequency Distribution According to Number of 
Children 1 







Intel- 


Merchants 


Artists 


Number of Children Born 


Executives 


and Manu- 


and 






lectuals 


facturers 


Authors 


O 


137 


37 


25 


59 


I 


129 


20 


17 


15 


2 


180 


44 


16 


9 


3 


193 


34 


15 


6 


4 


123 


23 


9 


4 


5 


99 


5 


9 


3 


6 


74 


5 


2 


1 


7 


38 


4 


3 


1 


8 


20 


4 


3 





9 


17 


4 


1 


2 


10 


8 








11 


2 








12 


1 








13 


6 








14 










15 










Number of cases 


1027 


180 


100 


100 


Average number 


3-i 


2-5 


2.4 


1.1 


Probable error 


±.050 


±.105 


±.074 


± .074 


Standard deviation 


2.4 


2.1 


1.1 


1.1 


Coefficient of variation 


76 


84 


46 


102 



1 The biographies in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography 
from which the data concerning the merchants, manufacturers, artists, 
and authors were secured, seemed to follow quite closely a standardized 
form, one item of which was the number of children. Accordingly, 
cases in which mention of children were omitted were marked zero. It 
is likely, however, that this has resulted in error, the averages shown 
being somewhat lower than the actual situation would warrant. 



330 



APPENDIX 



Frequency Distribution According to Number of Chil- 
dren Born to Father and Paternal Grandfather 





Father's 


Family 


Grandfather's Family 


Number of Children Born 










Executives 


Intellectuals 


Executives 


Intellectuals 


i 


33 


5 


4 


I 


2 


8i 


22 


IO 


5 


3 


IOO 


20 


20 


7 


4 


107 


23 


24 


6 


5 


120 


22 


33 


11 


6 


132 


31 


33 


7 


7 


112 


27 


39 


8 


8 


118 


16 


27 


4 


9 


98 


10 


20 


6 


IO 


63 


13 


5 


3 


ii 


39 


4 


11 





12 


27 


2 


12 


2 


13 


18 


1 


9 


1 


14 


6 


1 








15 


8 


1 


1 





16 


4 




3 





17 


1 




3 


1 


18 


2 




1 




19 


1 









20 


1 




2 




Number of cases 


1071 


198 


257 


62 


Average number 


6.4 


5-8 


7-i 


6.1 


Probable error 


±.065 


± .134 


± .146 


± .256 


Standard deviation 


3-2 


2.8 


3.5 


3-o 


Coefficient of variation 


5o 


48 


49 


49 



APPENDIX 



33i 



Frequency Distribution Frequency Distribution 

According to Joining of According to Vocational 
Associations 1 Persistence 2 





Mer- 






chants 


Artists 


'Points on Marking 


and 


and 


Scale 


Manu- 


Au- 




fac- 


thors 




turers 


65 


Under 5 


40 


5- 


35 


18 


10 — 


12 


9 


15- 


6 


5 


20 — 


3 


3 


25- 







30- 


1 




35- 







40- 







45- 


1 




50- 


1 




55- 







60- 


1 




Number of cases 


100 


100 


Average number 


8.8 


5-6 


Probable error 


±.660 


±•343 


Standard devia- 






tion 


q.8 


5-i 


Coefficient of va- 






riation 


in 


9i 





Mer- 






chants 


Artists 


Points on Marking 


and 


and 


Scale 


Manu- 


Au- 




fac- 


thors 




turers 




I 


I 


I 


2 


2 


I 


3 


2 


8 


4 


I 


3 


5 


9 


9 


6 


15 


4 


7 


7 


12 


8 


17 


8 


9 


22 


28 


10 


24 


26 


Number of cases 


100 


100 


Average number 


7-7 


7.6 


Probable error 


±444 


i.505 


Standard devia- 






tion 


6.6 


7-5 


Coefficient of va- 






riation 


86 


98 



1 In order to measure association joining, one hundred biographies 
of artists, authors, actors, and inventors (mostly artists and authors, 
hence the above title) in the supplementary volume of the National 
Cyclopedia of American Biography were studied and compared with an 
equal number of merchants' and manufacturers' biographies. All organi- 
zations strictly business were barred. Membership in a real estate associa- 
tion, for example, was omitted, while the trusteeship of a "fresh-air farm" 
counted two points. The following scale of rating points was used: 
6 Chief organizer of new association. 5 Joint organizer of new associa- 
tion. 4 President of an association. 3 Vice president or other officer. 
2 Director or trustee. 1 Member. 

In examining the above table we find three unusual cases, business 



332 APPENDIX 

ii. Conclusions. The averages and the coefficients of 
variation shown in the preceding tables on frequency dis- 
tribution may now for convenience be placed in summary 
form, as has been done on page 334. The bearing of this 
material upon the two main questions proposed may now 
receive brief statement : 

It appears that the executives are taller and heavier than 
ordinary men. One might add that they came from 
larger families than the intellectuals and that in turn 
they tend to rear larger families; also that they join 

men whose joining of non-business organizations totaled over 45, 50, 
and 60 points respectively. On examining the original accounts, it ap- 
pears these men were politicians as well as business men, and although 
according to the Cyclopedia they were primarily merchants and manu- 
facturers, in reality it is chiefly through their political activities that they 
were known. If they are to be regarded as politicians, it is difficult to see 
why membership in many of these organizations was not directly in line 
with their primary interests and hence under the above definition should 
be excluded. If these three cases are omitted, we have : cases 97, aver- 
age 7.42, standard deviation 5.89, and coefficient of variation .65. 

2 While the above data from, the National Cyclopedia was being com- 
piled, a similar list was made of vocational persistence. The two 
hundred cases were marked on the following scale of ten points, devised 
to represent the attitude taken toward their life work : 

10 Continued one line of activity as sole business throughout life. 

9 Continued one line thoroughout life, but also engaged in related 
sublines. 

8 Continued one line, but added unrelated sublines. The cleavage 
between this and the above is that here his personal attention is 
given to the subline whereas there money might have served 
instead, his life interest being in No. 8 partially diverted. 

7 Changed in maturity to closely related line of work. And it may 
be added that in none of these do " changes " refer to boyish 
interests and positions held. No. 7 means no serious break in 
personal interests. 

6 Changed in maturity to somewhat related line of work. 

5 Changed in maturity to entirely different line of work — a clear 
break in life interest. By " entirely different" is meant work 
in which his former experience would be of little or no service. 

4 Made two changes, closely related. 

3 Made two changes, somewhat related. 
2 Made two changes, unrelated. 

1 Changed three or more times. 



APPENDIX 



333 



associations more freely. These latter points, however, 
are perhaps more significant when viewed from the 
standpoint of the second question, the extent to which 
executives have undergone selection. 

It appears that the executives are subject to a somewhat 
stricter selection than the intellectuals. In age the exec- 
utives show a lower coefficient of variation than either 
the lesser executives or the intellectuals, and the non- 
reformers, comparable to executives under present con- 
ditions, are similarly more closely selected in age than 
the revolutionary leaders. In the number of their chil- 
dren, the executives come nearer the normal (on the basis 
that it requires three children to realize family per- 

It may aid to clearness if the above frequency distribution be pre- 
sented by a graph. 



30 










































































25 












































Exe 


;utiv 


33 
























^ 


1 

O 20 

o 








Int< 






















1 * 










































*i 








0> 

| 15 




















/ 


\ 


*>, 






* I 
























t 


* 




's 


.*** 












10 










































































5 


















































/* 






































t 































3 4 5 6 7 8 

Number of Points as per Marking Scale 

Fig. 6. — Vocational Persistence 



334 



APPENDIX 



S3 H 

P ° 



o°> 






o o^ 



in Q O 



M <N 
CO O 



NO OO 

ON ON 



>-ooO 

NO NO 



« ^ < 3 



H NO 



o o 



33 



to -^ \r> On -^-00 On 

(N h HOO i-'t 



Tf r-~ On no H O O 

6 oi 6^°° m . 






m On m 
TfNO NO 



m NO nO O NO O On 
cn mo m <n r~- to t^- 



t^. -tf- M nioo O 

(^) hi H N H . t ^ 
m t^OO CN rONO t^ 



a -S 

■Pis 

w w S £ £ .3 

DC b0 £ -C ^ 
o • - •- cl> ~ 'Z <n 

DO 3J ► DO 3 o3 *-" 



APPENDIX 335 

petuity) than do the intellectuals, and the same is true 
of the merchants and manufacturers as compared with 
the artists and authors, the coefficients of variation in 
the four instances showing a narrower variability for the 
executives, including the merchants and manufacturers. 
In the attitude toward their life work, vocational persist- 
ency, the executives show less variability. On the other 
hand, the material is neutral or even slightly adverse as 
to height, age at marriage, and number of children in 
fathers' and grandfathers' families. The item as to 
association membership, though as given is slightly 
adverse, would tend to strengthen the above conclusion, 
provided the criticism mentioned in the note following 
the frequency table above is accepted. It is evident, 
therefore, that while the material in the main appears 
to indicate the above conclusion is valid, it is not free 
from opposing elements. 

On the basis of the two conclusions stated, one may be 
inclined to believe the net results of the investigation 
disappointingly meager. Yet executives and intellect- 
uals are such vital forces in society that scarce any data 
bearing upon them is without significance. It is hoped 
especially that, while the rougher statistical methods 
employed by the author seemed adequate for the pur- 
pose to which he wished to put these data, others with 
more precise technique will find in the foregoing tables 
raw materials which may be of service to them and, 
through them, of benefit to science. 



INDEX 



Ability, intellectual, as a source of 
personality, iio-iii. See Execu- 
tive ability. 

Abnormal mental condition, as a 
factor in suggestibility, 139. 

Achievement of success, a source of 
prestige, 124-125. 

Acting, influence of, in leadership, 
161-163. 

Action and reaction, successive, in- 
volved by interest, 256-258. 

Actions, reaction of, on mental states, 
52, 133-134. 

Adams, Brooks, Theory of Social 
Revolutions, quoted, 264 n. 

Adaptability, the executive's, 293 ff. ; 
demands for, upon the executive, 
294, 295 ; surplus in relation to, 295- 
297 ; experience in relation to, 297- 
298 ; age selection test of, 298. 

Addams, Jane, quoted to show the 
common distortion of values, 129 n. ; 
at Progressive Party convention at 
Chicago, 221 n. ; on lack of idealism 
in workers, 224. 

Admiration, ascendancy secured 
through, 1 1 5-1 1 6. 

Adverse pressure, the executive and, 
12-15. See Opposition. 

Advertising, securing originality in, 
63; individuality in, 120; stand- 
ardization of, 234. 

Age, allowance for, in considering 
physique of executives, 33 n. ; ele- 
ment of, in reform movements, 264- 
270. 

Alarm which accompanies innovation, 
260-261. 



Alertness, importance of, to effective 
effort, 56-58. 

American Radiator Company, promo- 
tion system of, 155; bulletin pub- 
lished by, for employees, 229-230. 

American Revolution, average age of 
leaders in, 265, 268. 

Analysis of men, in building an organi- 
zation, 80-82. 

Analytic power, value of, in competi- 
tive contest, 285. 

Angell, Psychology, quoted, 249 n.; 
cited, 279. 

Anger, degeneration of emulation into, 
159. 

Animal groups, leadership among, 
1-2, 6; mutual aid among, 4. 

Anti-Saloon League officials and or- 
ganizers, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 

Anti-Slavery Agitation, ages of re- 
formers and of non-reformers in, 
266, 268. 

Apathy in organizations, 96; as a 
restriction upon the executive, 
245 ff.; methods of overcoming, 
by arousing and maintaining interest, 
246-258; twilight zone between 
interest and, 258. 

Aristocracy, weapons of, in contest 
with democracy, 284. 

Art, use of, in securing leadership, 
161 ff.; and the executive, 166-171 ; 
elements of decadence in, 1 71-172. 

Artists, physique of, 25, 27, 28. See 
Intellectuals. 

Ascendancy. See Leadership and Per- 
sonality. 

Asquith, Herbert, executive leader's 
face-to-face relations with opponents 
illustrated by, 15 n. 



337 



338 



INDEX 



Assimilation, process of, 301 ff . ; rela- 
tion of rapidity of, to number of 
points of contact, 302 ff . ; opposition 
retards, 304; varies with degree of 
variation in innovation, 307 ff.; the 
more numerous the agents of, the 
more rapid the process, 309. 

Athletic contests, wise use of emula- 
tion in, 159. 

Attention, shifting of, a type of illusion, 
176-178. 

Attitudes, transmissibility of bodily 
and mental, 52-53, 133-134. 

Auctioneers, appreciation of pulsa- 
tions of interest by, 256. 

Augustine, St., praise of love by, 118 n. 

Authority, effort to attain, as a factor 
in a stimulating social system, 38; 
bases of, 188-194. 

Authors, physique of, 25, 27, 28. See 
Intellectuals. 

Awe, ascendancy secured through, 116. 

B 

Bagehot, Walter, Physics and Politics, 

quoted, 99 n., 141, 260, 282-283 > 

cited, 306. 
Baldwin, definition of suggestion by, 

136 ; Mental Development, cited, 296. 
Bank presidents, physique and family 

statistics of, 25, 27, 28. 
Barker, The Nervous System, cited, 20. 
Barton, James L., estimate by, 267 n. 
Beveridge, Senator, speech at Chicago 

convention quoted, 222 n. 
Bigotry, a scar in character, 186. 
Bishops, rank of, as leaders, according 

to height and weight, 25, 27, 28; 

physique as compared with preachers 

in small towns, 32. 
Bismarck, power of work, 16; power 

to overflow the unusual, 17-18. 
Bruce, Robert, physical prowess of, 

a qualification for leadership, 109, 

163. 
Bryan, W. J., an example of emotional 

power drawn from positive bodily 



attitudes, 52 ; development of power 
by, as needed, 56 ; quality of initia- 
tive in, 64; appreciation of value 
of the psychological moment shown 
by, 248 ; devices of, for maintaining 
interest, 257. 

Bryce, James, American Commonwealth, 
quoted, 103. 

Building an organization, 80-83. 

Bulletins, instruction of employees 
through, 229-230. 

Burdens, sharing of, by executives, 90- 
92. 

Burke, Edmund, on mental correlates 
of physical acts, 52. 

Buxton, Charles Roden, estimate by, 
267 n. 



Callers, limiting loss of time from, 

87-88. 
Carnegie, Andrew, use of emulation 

method by, 153 ; promotion policy 

of, 155- 
Carter, When Railroads were New, 

quoted, 149-150. 
Cassatt, A. J., openness of, to im- 
pressions, 58~59; quoted on burden 

sharing by executives, 90. 
Causation, errors regarding, a type 

of illusion, 178-180. 
Centralization of industry, demand for 

executive ability created by, 2. 
Ceremonialism, a method of opposing 

truth, 184-185. 
Ceremonies, stimulation power of, 

164-166. 
Chiefs of fire and police departments, 

physique, 25, 27, 28. 
China, ages of reformers and of non- 
reformers in awakening of, 267-268. 
Classification of material by executives, 

85-86. 
Clearness in ideas, importance of, 44- 

45- 
Clubs for education of employees, 

230-231. 



INDEX 



339 



Collective action, stimulation to, 
through art, 165 ; a concomitant 
to, found in followers' tendency to 
admit inferiority, 190. 

Collective ideal of effectiveness, ful- 
fillment of, 4-6. 

Commons, Trade Unionism and Labor 
Problems, quoted, 75 n. 

Competition, a limit placed upon the 
executive, 275 ff.; reason for de- 
velopment of, 275 ; attitude of con- 
testants in, 275-278; weapons of, 
278-279; three types of contest, 
279-286; conditions determining 
choice of prestige or logic, 287-291. 
See also Emulation. 

Complexity of modern life, necessity 
of leadership due to, 2-3. 

Concentration of current of interest, 
254-255. 

Concrete problems, application of 
knowledge to, in effective education, 
237-238. 

Conformity, struggle between innova- 
tion and, 12, 259 ff. 

Conservatism, development of, with 
age, 269-270. 

Constructiveness, power gained 
through exercise of instinct of, 53- 
54- 

Contact points, relation of rapidity 
of assimilation to number of, 302 ff . 

Contest element, introduction of, into 
work, 151-155. 

Control, how to secure, 101-105 ; 
art as a means of, 1 69-1 71 ; idealism 
a method of indirect, 223-224. 

Conviction, intensity of, as a means to 
power, 49-50. 

Cooley, Human Nature and the Social 
Order, quoted, 40 n., 114 n., 118, 
132-133- 

Cooperation, art as a stimulus to, 165. 

Cost rate, payment of workers by, 
210. 

Credulity, a factor in suggestibility, 
138-140 ; part played by, in illusion, 
183. 



Criticism, effect on suggestion values 

of treatment of, 145. 
Cumulative results rendered possible 

by infectiousness of suggestion, 146- 

148. 
Curtis Publishing Company, efficiency 

work of, 234-235. 
Custom, overcoming of force of, by 

leaders, 12-15, 259 ff. 



D 



Danger, laying emphasis upon, as one 
means of opposing truth, 185-186. 

Darwin, Charles, conservation of 
nervous energy by, 296. 

Death, growth of prestige after, 127. 

Decadence, elements of, in art, 171- 
172. 

Deception, antiquity of, 174-175; 
as a fine art, 175. See Illusion. 

Defeat, suggestion power through not 
acknowledging, 145. 

Definiteness in procedure, a result of 
instruction, 238-239. . 

Desk and desk devices as mechanical 
aids of executives, 87. 

Detachment, sense of, in discipline, 
199-200. 

Details, acquiring of, the first step in 
effective education, 236-237. 

Development, rapid, as a result of 
instruction, 239. 

Diagrams, organization, 79. 

Difference, opposition originating in a 
sense of, 259 ; lessening opposition 
by minimizing degree of, 304-305. 
See Variation. 

Digestion and energy, 20. 

Dill, Roman Society from Nero to 
Marcus Aurelius, quotations from, 
123, 178 n. 

Discipline, power of, for group motiva- 
tion, 188 ff . ; bases of authority, 
188-194; secured through grada- 
tion of penalties, 194-197; social, 
moral, or religious supplements to 
secure effectiveness in, 197-198; 



34Q 



INDEX 



degree of publicity, 198-199; value 
of formalized, 199; a sense of de- 
tachment, 199-200; importance of 
certainty, 200-201. 

Discussion, introduction of, in competi- 
tive contests, 282-283; fear of, by 
those unable to justify themselves 
by fact, 283. 

Dispatch, secured through alertness, 
57- 

Dissociation, relation between degrees 
of, and degrees of suggestibility, 
140. 

Distortion of values, a type of illusion, 
180-182. 

Distractions, elimination of, to main- 
tain interest, 255-256. 

Division of labor made possible by 
organization, 74-75, 80. 

Dogma, curbing of reason by, 283- 
284. 

Duncan, Herbert Spencer, quoted, 296. 

Duration, an element of suggestion 
power, 140-141. 



Eaton, J. S., Education for Efficiency 
in Railroad Service, quoted, 232. 

Edison Company, New York, school 
maintained by, 231. 

Effectiveness, modern demand for, 
4; collective ideal of, and method 
of fulfillment, 4-6 ; in effort, 55 ff • ; 
in development of power, 55-56; 
gained through originality, 58-59; 
importance of focalization to, 62- 
63 ; initiative and, 63-64 ; securing 
through education, 227 ff.; in teach- 
ing, 236-238. 

Effort, effectiveness in, 55 ff. ; im- 
portance of alertness to effective, 
56-58; systematic personal, 85- 
92; the source of, 96 ff. ; true springs 
of, found in the minds of followers, 
98-100. 

Ellis, Bavelock, cited and quoted, 
169 n., 184 n. 



Emblems, stimulation power of, 166- 
167. 

Emotional control, a source of per- 
sonality, 109-110. 

Emotions, power secured through 
influence of, 52-53: focus of, 52; 
physical resultants, 52; trans- 
missibility of, 133. 

Employees, selection of, 80-82 ; re- 
warding of, 207-213 ; instruction of, 
228-232. 

Emulation, group motivation through, 
149 ff . ; ways of applying policy 
of, 151-155; good and bad features 
of, 156-159; dangers to be guarded 
against, 159. 

Energy, the ultimate source of execu- 
tive ability, 19; source of bodily, 
19-20; not definitely limited by 
size, 35; fluctuations in rate of, 
35 _ 36; effect of a stimulating en- 
vironment, 37-41 ; effective ex- 
penditure of executive, permitted 
by organizing ability, 77-78 ; stimu- 
lation of his group's, by an execu- 
tive, 95-100; not merely one but 
several means of releasing, 100- 
101 ; control of, to insure results, 
101-105 ; as an element in sugges- 
tion power, 137-138. 

Environment, influence of a stimulat- 
ing, on energizing rate, 37-41. 

Envy, degeneration of emulation into, 

159- 

Erie Railroad, method of getting best 
out of engineers by, 166 n. 

Error, part taken by, in illusion, 183- 
184. 

Evangelists, examples of suggestion 
power from, 143 n. ; distortion of 
values by, 182. 

Executive, modern conditions which 
create demand for the, 1-6; dif- 
ference between intellectual type of 
leader and, 7 ; three main lines of 
investigation of, 7-8; question 
whether a selected individual, 8; 
similarity of tasks of, 11; rise of, in 



INDEX 



34i 



times of transition, 12-13; need 
of power to work, 16-17; physique 
of, 22-34; fluctuations in energy 
rate of, 35-36; four chief means of 
increasing power, 37-53 ; advantages 
to, of organization, 73-84; stimulat- 
ing and controlling of men by, 95- 
105; matter of personality, 106-120; 
imitation prestige of, 124-134; power 
of suggestion, 135-148; employment 
of emulation, 149-159 ; utilization of 
art by, 1 66-1 71 ; use of illusion, 
174-186; methods of discipline, 
188-201 ; rewards and their appor- 
tionment, 203-214; power in ideal- 
ism, 216-225; instruction of subor- 
dinates, 227-240; limits upon, 
245 ff. ; maintaining of interest by, 
246-258; arousing of opposition, 
259-273; encountering of compe- 
tition, 275-291 ; adaptability of, 
293 ff. ; system of rigid selection 
continually applied to, 298-299. 

Executive ability, need of, funda- 
mental in all organized effort, 1-2 ; 
present-day opportunity for, 2 ; 
elements in modern civilization 
which create demand for, 2-6; 
need for, in special emergencies, 6-7 ; 
energy the ultimate source of, 19. 

Executive secretaries, physique of, 
25, 27, 28. 

Expectancy, value of, for positiveness 
in suggestion, 145-146; character- 
istic of effective idealism, 222-223. 



Face-to-face relations, of leader with 
his opponents, 14-15; value of, to 
executives, 1 18-120. 

Fact and representation, distance be- 
tween, an element in width of varia- 
tion in innovation, 270-272. 

Factory superintendents, physique, 25, 
27, 28. 

Faith in self, value of, 48-49 ; a factor 
conditioning power of suggestion, 137. 



Families, size of, Appendix. 

Fasting, suggestibility heightened by, 
139- 

Fatigue, increased suggestibility due 
to, 139. 

Fear, leader's appeal to, 113. 

Feeling, modification of play of mere 
instinctive activity by element of, 97. 

Flowers, frequency distribution shown 
by, 5 n- 

Focalization, importance of, to effec- 
tive effort, 62-63. 

Force, effect of degree of, in urging 
innovations, 272-273. 

Formalized discipline, 199. 

French Revolution, value of the 
psychological moment shown by, 
247; ages of reformers and of non- 
reformers in, 266, 268. 

Frequency distribution of human 
qualities, 5. 



Galton, Francis, cited on frequency 
distribution, 5 n. ; quoted, 62 n. ; 
on Herbert Spencer's habits, 296. 

Game element, introduction of, into 
work, 1 51-155. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, contemporary 
views of, 14. 

Generalizations, development of, in 
effective education, 237. 

Gilbreth, Frank B., efficiency experi- 
ments of, 234. 

Godkin, Problems of Modem Democ- 
racy, quoted, 286. 

Governors of states, physique of, 25, 
27, 28. 

Groos, Karl, Play of Man, cited, 174. 

Guilt, certainty of, before infliction of 
penalty, 194-195. 



H 



Habits, substitution of, for nervous 
elements by means of organization, 
75-76. 



342 



INDEX 



Harriman, E. H., dispatch illustrated 
by, 57 n. 

Harrison, Frederic, quoted, 232. 

Harvey, Daniel Webster, quoted, 113 n. 

Hate, to be guarded against in using 
emulation policy, 159. 

Headlam, Bismarck, quoted, 18. 

Height, of executives, 25, 28; table of 
leaders ranked according to, 25. 

Higginson, T. W., anecdote concern- 
ing prestige, 125 n. 

Him, The Origins of Art, quoted, 164, 
165. 

Hold-over files, use of, 87, 88. 

Homogeneity, like response to stimu- 
lation insured by, 103-104. 

Honor, reward found in, 206. 

Howell, Text-Book oj Physiology, cited, 
20, 101 n. 

Hypnotic power, sources of, 135-136, 
139-140 



Idea, the luminous, 43-44; char- 
acteristics, 44-46; power of, 46. 

Idealism, power of, 216; derivation 
of, 216-217; disadvantages com- 
bined with advantages in, 217; 
cultivation and use by the execu- 
tive, 218; phases of, 218-221; 
illustrated by the Progressive Party, 
22011.; factors which condition 
efficiency of, as a practical policy, 
221-225; indirect control through, 
223-224. 

Idealizing tendency, a source of 
prestige, 126-127. 

Ideals, right adjustment of, for effec- 
tiveness, 222. 

Ideas, relation of, to action, 43; sys- 
tematic production of new, 60; 
persistence of, 252; the pain which 
accompanies new, 260. 

Illusion, group motivation through, 
174 ff. ; as a fine art, 175 ; types of, 
176 (T. ; the shifting of attention, 
176-178; errors regarding causa- 



tion, 178-180; the distortion of 
values, 180-182 ; method of account- 
ing for theory of, 182-186. 

Imagination, a factor in making ideal- 
ism effective, 221-222. 

Imitation, force of, 122 ; of the superior 
by the inferior, 122-123; in manage- 
ment, 127-134; factors which condi- 
tion use of, in management, 131- 
134. 

Imitation prestige, 122-123; hi posi- 
tions of power, 123-124; in posses- 
sion of wealth, 124; in the achieve- 
ment of success, 124-125 ; in the 
idealizing tendency, 126-127; effect 
on suggestion power, 138. 

Impulsive temperament, characteristic 
of successful executives, 49. 

Incentive, the necessity for, 45 ; 
use of, in group motivation, 149 ff . ; 
necessity for, in using emulation 
policy, 157-158. 

Independence, basis of authority 
found in degree of, of subject, 191- 
194. 

Individuality of the executive, 11-92. 

Industrial Workers of the World, 
hierarchy established by, 293-294. 

Infectiousness, of motor impulses, 
133-134; of suggestion renders 
cumulative results possible, 146-148. 

Initiative necessary to effective effort, 
63-64- 

Innovation, struggle between con- 
formity and, 12; arousing of op- 
position to, 259 ff . ; mental disturb- 
ances which accompany, 259-261 ; 
causes of opposition, 259-261 ; factor 
of width of variation in, in determin- 
ing degree of opposition, 261-272; 
effect of degree of force with which 
urged, 272-273. 

Insincerity, a scar in character, 186. 

Instincts, springs of all human activity 
found in the, 96 ; classification of, 97. 

Instruction, group motivation through, 
227 ff. ; forms of, 228-232 ; question 
as to what shall be taught, 232-235; 



INDEX 



343 



securing effectiveness in, 236-238; 
results of, in definite procedure, 
rapid development, and tentative 
attitudes, 238-240. 

Insurance presidents, physique of, 25, 
27, 28. 

Intellect, part taken by the, in adjust- 
ment of man to his environment, 97. 

Intellectual ability, as a source of 
personality, 110-111. 

Intellectuals, 7; executives compared 
with, as to physique, 26-29 ; number 
of children of, as compared with 
executives, Appendix; age of, at 
marriage as compared with execu- 
tives, Appendix ; vocational persis- 
tence of, Appendix ; social activities 
of, Appendix ; age-selection test ap- 
plied to, Appendix. 

Interest, enlisting and maintaining 
subordinates', 246 ff . ; successive 
action and reaction in, 256-258; 
relation between element of, and 
degree of opposition to innovations, 
263-270; contact points for purposes 
of assimilation furnished by, 303. 

Inventors, physique of, 26, 27, 28. See 
Intellectuals. 



Jacobs, Luther, cited, 161. 

James, William, cited and quoted, 
52, 53 n., 56 n., 98, 128, 183, 186, 
223, 246 n., 250, 252 n., 256, 278. 

Japan, ages of reformers and of non- 
reformers in Modernizing of, 267, 
268. 

Jealousy, danger of, in emulation 
policy, 159. 

Jefferson, Thomas, quoted on advan- 
tages of digestive powers, 20 ; lumi- 
nous idea held by, 45; Webster's 
impression of, 127. 

Jenks, History of Politics, quoted, 13, 
311 n., 312. 

Joseph II of Austria, experience as an 
efficiency engineer, 262-263. 



Kaffirs, collective action by, in wars, 

165. 
Karens of Burma, a motto of the, 

99. 
Keiser Company, disciplinary methods 

of, 197-198. 
Koran, doctrine of predestination in 

the, 179; quotation concerning 

obedience from, 181-182. 
Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, cited, 101 n. 



Labor force, analysis of, in building an 
organization, 80-82. 

Labor organizers, physique of, 25, 27, 
28. 

Law, John, and the Mississippi Bubble, 
147, 270-271. 

Leaders, statistics of physique of, 25, 
27, 28, Appendix; game element 
introduced into work by rivalry be- 
tween followers and, 151-152. See 
Executive. 

Leadership, universal need of, for 
effective group action, 1-2 ; intel- 
lectual and executive, the two types 
of, 7; primary qualifications for, 
107-112. 

Le Bon, Gustav, The Crowd, quoted, 
106, 107, 137 n.; Psychology of 
Revolution, quoted, 191. 

Lecturers, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 

Lectures on salesmanship, 229. 

Libraries for instruction of employees, 
229. 

Limits upon the executive, 245-311. 

Lincoln, Abraham, analytic power of, 
285 n.; quoted on persuasiveness 
in argument, 291 n. 

Lodge, H. C, Daniel Webster, quoted, 
106. 

Loeb, books by, cited, 19. 

Logic, prestige opposed to, in competi- 
tive contest, 282-284 ; logic against, 
285-286; conditions determining 



344 



INDEX 



choice between prestige and, 287- 
291. 

Love, ascendancy secured through, 118. 

Loyalty, control through develop- 
ment of, 103. 

Luminous idea, influence of the, on 
action, 43-46. 



M 



McDougall, William, classification of 
instincts by, 97 ; cited and quoted, 
113, 115, 117, 136, 151 n. 

Machiavelli, The Prince, quoted, 184- 
185. 

Machines, supplementing men by, 
through organization, 83-84. 

McMurry, F. M., Method of the Recita- 
tion, cited, 236 n. 

Malleson, Life of Robert Clive, cited, 
14, 39- 

Management, force of imitation in, 
127-134. 

Manufacturers, physique of, 25, 27, 
28. 

Marshall, John, analytic power of, 
285 n. 

Mass phenomenon, suggestion as a, 
146-148. 

Mass suggestion, power of, 141-142. 

Material, classification and subordina- 
tion of, by executives, 85-87. 

Maxwell, History of Randolph County, 
W. Va., quoted, 182. 

Mayors, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 

Meat-packing establishments, organi- 
zation shown in, 75 n. 

Mechanical contrivances substituted 
for mental processes through or- 
ganization, 76, 87-89. 

Medico- Actuarial Mortality Investiga- 
tion statistics, 29 ff., 299. 

Memory, aids of the, for executives, 
88. 

Men, choice of, in building an organi- 
zation, 80-82. 

Mental attitudes, transmissibility of, 
52-53, 133-134- 



Mentality, effect of state of, on sug- 
gestibility, 139-140. 

Merchants, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 

Mind, organization type of, 78-80; 
stimulation and control as matters 
of the, 98-101, 104-105 ; rewards 
which consist in matters of the, 203- 
204. 

Minds of followers, true springs of 
effort found in, 98-101 ; source of 
control found in, 104-105. 

Mnemonic devices, use of, 60. 

Mobs, suggestion value of expectancy 
shown by, 146; cumulative results 
of infectiousness of suggestion shown 
by, 147. 

Mommsen, History of Rome, quoted, 
127 n., 306 n. 

Moody, Dwight L., contemporary 
views of, 14. 

Morris, Railroad Administration, 
quoted, 90-91. 

Motivating the group, methods of, 95- 
241. 

Multitude, control through subordina- 
tion to the democratic, 102-103. 

Miinsterberg, Hugo, Psychology and 
Industrial Efficiency, cited, 82. 

Music, stimulation through, 164-165. 

Musicians, physique of, 25, 27, 28. See 
Intellectuals. 

Mutuality, ideal of, 218-219. 



N 



Napoleon I, power of work of, 17; 
methods of work, 64-67 ; disaster 
resulting to, from reluctance to share 
burdens, 90; power of personality 
of, 107; use of illusion by, 177-178; 
an example of favorable influence of 
surplus upon vitality, 297 n. 

Napoleon III, use of rewards by, 
205. 

National Cash Register Company, 
trips utilized by, for education of 
employees, 230. 

Nervousness, causes of, 53 n. 



INDEX 



345 



Nervous system, connection of, with 

energy, 19-20. 
New Freedom, the, 206 n. 
Noises, elimination of, to promote 

efficiency, 255-256. 



Objective temperament, an element 
in suggestion power, 138. 

Opportunity, offered the leader by the 
unusual, 17-19; utilization of, 
through alertness, 57-58. 

Opposition, surmounting of, by leaders, 
12-15; the arousing of, 259 ff. ; 
causes of, 259-261 ; factors which 
determine how high it shall mount, 
261 ff. ; ages of leaders in movements 
of, 265-268; means of lessening, 
304-306; a hindrance to assimila- 
tion, 304-306. 

Orators, alertness as a necessary qual- 
ity of, 57. 

Organization, advantages of, 73 ff. ; 
multiplication of a leader through, 
73-74; division of labor made 
possible by, 74-75; permits sub- 
stitution of habits and mechanical 
contrivances for more expensive ner- 
vous elements, 75-76, 83; the most 
effective plans and policies the results 
of , 76 ; a source of stimulation and sta- 
bilization to executives, 76-77; ability 
for, permits efficient expenditure of 
executive energy, 77-78; applica- 
tion of, 78 ff . ; the organization point 
of view, 78-79 ; building an, 80-83 ; 
supplementing men by machines, 
83-84; as applied to the executive 
himself, 85 ff. ; classification and 
subordination of material, 85-87; 
mechanical aids, 87-89; the day's 
work planned, 89 ; sharing burdens, 
90-92 ; imitation increased in scope 
through, 130-131. 

Organization chart, 79. 

Originality, source of, and value, 58- 
61. 



Pain accompanying a new idea, 260. 

Parsimony, law of, 317. 

Partnership, an enlightened, a factor 
conditioning the efficiency of ideal- 
ism, 224-226. 

Payment. See Rewards. 

Penalties, gradation of, to realize 
effectiveness in discipline, 194-197. 

Perkins, Charles E., working prin- 
ciples, quoted, 90-91. 

Personality, as a source for securing 
ascendancy, 106 ff. ; sources of, 
107-112; effect upon followers, 112 
ff. ; defined, 112; typical appeals 
through which followers may be 
affected, 11 2-1 18; the use of, 118- 
120; organization of, 120; influ- 
ence of imitation, 122-134; ele- 
ments of, which condition sugges- 
tion power, 136-138. 

Personal power, source of, 11 ff. 

Philosophers, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 
See Intellectuals. 

Physique, of executives, 22 ff . ; statis- 
tics, Appendix. 

Piece rate, paymentfof workers by, 210 ; 
incentive supplied by, 212-213. 

Planning the day's work, by execu- 
tives, 89. 

Plymouth Cordage Company, girls' 
club at, 230-231. 

Policy holders, compared in physique 
with executives, 29-30. 

Political work, illustration of power 
of mass suggestion in, 142. 

Politics, use of suggestion in, 135; 
contest element in, 153-154; illu- 
sion in, 175, 176, 177, 179. 

Positions of power, imitation prestige 
from, 123-124. 

Positiveness, relation between sug- 
gestion values and degree of, 144-146. 

Possession of wealth, prestige in, 124. 

Power, a stimulating environment as a 
factor in increasing, 37-41 ; increase 
of, through the luminous idea, 43- 



346 



INDEX 



46; means for securing increased, 
through the set task, the blocked 
retreat, faith in self, the impulsive 
temperament, and intensity of 
conviction, 46-50; influence of 
emotions on, 50-53; possibility of 
development, 53; effectiveness in 
development of, 55-56; exercise of, 
through personality, 106 ff. 

Premium rate, payment of workers 
by, 2ii. 

Prestige, source of natural, in a pro- 
nounced development of essential 
qualities, 112; qualities by which 
secured, 112-118; influence of 
imitation, 122-127 ; effect of natural 
and imitation, on suggestion power, 
i37» 138; authority prestige, 189; 
use of prestige against, in competi- 
tive contests, 280-282 ; opposed 
to logic, 282-284; conditions deter- 
mining choice between logic and, 
287-291. 

Privilege, weapons of, 284. 

Professors, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 
See Intellectuals. 

Progressive Party, idealism illustrated 
by, 220 n. 

Promotion policy, use of, with em- 
ployees, 155. 

Protestant Reformation, ages of re- 
formers in, compared with non- 
reformers, 265, 268. 

Prowess, physical, as a source of per- 
sonality, 108-109, 163. 

Prussia, ages of reformers and of non- 
reformers in Regeneration of, 266, 
268. 

Psychological moment in the control 
of men, 57, 246-249. 

Psychological tests of employees, 82. 

Psychologists, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 
See Intellectuals. 

Publicity, degree of, of discipline, 198- 
199. 

Publishers, physique of 25, 27, 28. 

Pulitzer, Joseph, on prestige attached 
to wealth, 124. 



Pulsations, interest a matter of, 256. 
Punishment, definiteness of, necessary 

to effectiveness in discipline, 195. 
Puritan Revolution, ages of reformers 

and of non-reformers in, 265, 268. 



R 



Racial subordination, control through, 
102. 

Railroad building, force of emula- 
tion in, 149-150. 

Railroad executives, physique of, 
25, 27, 28; physique compared with 
station agents, 32. 

Railroads, use of emulation method 
in management of, 153 ; use of art 
by executives, in treatment of em- 
ployees, 166. 

Records, use of, with workers, to excite 
emulation, 154. 

Reformation activity, relation be- 
tween periods of, and the leadership 
of young men, 263-270. 

Reformers, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 

Religious persecution, dangers of, as 
means of discipline, 197. 

Repetition, suggestion through, 140- 
141. 

Results, apportioning rewards accord- 
ing to, 207-208. 

Reverence, creation of, and personal- 
ity's appeal to, 116-117. 

Rewards, use of, in emulation policy, 
158; as a means of group motiva- 
tion, 203 ff . ; the variety of, 204- 
207 ; principles for apportioning, 
207-213 ; method of bestowing, 213- 
214. 

Rhythm, common action secured by, 
165. 

Rivalry. See Emulation. 

Roberts, New Immigration, quoted, 
176 n., 192 n. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, intensity of 
opposition to, 14; action repre- 
sented by, 49; development of 
power by, as needed, 56. 



INDEX 



347 



Rosebery, William Pitt, quoted, 175, 
247. 

Ross, E. A., books by, cited and quoted, 
114, 125 n., 128, 133, 139, iS7, 171, 
178, 184, 197, 200, 205, 217, 224, 
249, 262, 275, 279, 283, 285; use 
of term "merit" by, 279 n. 

Royce, Josiah, quoted, 62, 254. 

Russia, ages of reformers and of non- 
reformers in, 267, 268. 



Sales managers, physique of, 25, 27, 
28. 

Salesmanship, lectures on, 229. 

Salesmen, alertness of, to the psycho- 
logical moment, 57; use of emula- 
tion policy with, 152 n., 154, 158; 
application of art in supplying in- 
centives for, 166; idealism as a 
means of control, 224; methods of 
instruction, 228-232. 

School maintained by New York 
Edison Company, 231. 

School superintendents, physique of, 
25, 27, 28; physique as compared 
with principals in small towns, 32. 

Score cards, industry, 81. 

Scott, Influencing Men in Business, 
quoted, 291 n. 

Self-alignment, a factor conditioning 
the efficiency of idealism, 225. 

Self-assertion, power gained through 
exercise of instinct of, 51-52. 

Self-feeling, dependence of authority 
upon different degrees of, in leader 
and in follower, 188-191. 

Self-realization, interest secured by 
whatever seems to afford, 250. 

Self-respect, a factor in suggestion 
power, 137. 

Senators, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 

Set task, value of the, 51. 

Shaw, George Bernard, on basis of 
authority, 191. 

Sherwin-Williams Company, policy of, 
with salesmen, 152 n., 158 n., 166. 



Sidis, Boris, quoted, 53 n., 140 n., 
142 n., 146. 

Simonds, "Social Assimilation," cited, 
302. 

Singing, stimulating power of, 164. 

Size, relation of success to, 31-32. 

Social activities of executives and of 
intellectuals, 297-299. 

Social approval, as a factor in a 
stimulating social system, 39-40. 

Socialism, effect on a stimulating en- 
vironment, 41. 

Socialist organizers, physique of, 25, 
27, 28. 

Socialization of human nature, con- 
trol made possible by, 101-102 ; 
a source of personality, 111-112. 

"Soldiering" by workers, 1, 96, 208- 
209. 

Specialization, in labor, 74-75; un- 
favorable to adaptation, 298. 

Speed, influence of, in modern civiliza- 
tion, on need for executive ability, 
3-4- 

Speed element in innovations, effect 
of, on degree of opposition, 262-263. 

Spencer, Herbert, on ceremonial ob- 
servance in governments, 170; 
conservation of nervous energy by, 
296. 

Standardization, progress in, 233-235. 

Stimulating environment, influence 
of, on energizing rate, 37-41. 

Stimulation, of executives by organiza- 
tions, 76-77 ; of his group by execu- 
tive, 95 ff. ; use of art for, 163-171. 

Subjection, as a typical appeal of 
personality, 113-114. 

Subordination, of material by execu- 
tives, 86-87 ; use of, by the leader, 
102-103, 113-114. 

Success, relation between physical 
size and, 31-32 ; prestige in achieve- 
ment of, 124-125. 

Suggestibility of subjects, factors 
conditioning, 138-140. 

Suggestion, force of, 135 ff . ; factors 
conditioning power of, 136-142 ; 



348 



INDEX 



means for increasing effectiveness of, 
143 ff. ; use of direct and of indirect 
methods, 143-144; values vary 
according to degree of positiveness, 
144-146; cumulative results ren- 
dered possible by the infectiousness 
of, 146-148. 

Sumner, Andrew Jackson, cited, 177. 

Superintendents of street cleaning, 
physique of, 25, 27, 28. 

Superiority, tendency of, to dominate, 
310-311. 

Surplus, the prime essential for adapta- 
tion, 295-297. 

Sympathy, securing of ascendancy 
through, 1 1 7-1 1 8. 

Systematic production of new ideas, 
60. 

T 

Taine, Ancient Regime, quoted, 162, 
172, 192. 

Tarde, Laws of Imitation, cited, 131, 
133, 275, 279, 306. 

Taylor, Frederick W., efficiency experi- 
ments of, 234. 

Teaching, effectiveness in, 236-238. 

Temperament, impulsive, character- 
istic of successful executives, 49; 
as a factor in suggestibility, 139. 

Tentative attitude, 3; a result of 
instruction, 240. 

Tests, psychological, of employees, 82. 

Thorndyke, rules for work, 53 n. 

Thurm, Among the Indians of Guiana, 
quoted, 189 n. 

Titles, prestige in, 123. 

Tolman, Social Engineering, cited, 229. 

Trade-unions, English, efforts of, to 
combat tendency to individual 
acquisition of authority, 38 n. 

Transition periods, development of 
the executive in, 12-13; oppor- 
tunity for the guiding hand in, 
248-249. 

Transmissibility of bodily and mental 
attitudes, 52-53. I33~i34- 

Triplett, article by, cited, 151. 



Trips, education of employees by, 
230. 

Truth, only real antidote to error, 184; 
methods of opposition to, 184-186. 

Turkey, ages of reformers and non- 
reformers in, 267, 268. 



Union Pacific Railroad, educational 
courses offered employees by, 232. 

University presidents, physique of, 
25, 27, 28; physique as compared 
with presidents of small colleges, 
32. 

Unusual, opportunity offered the 
leader by the, 17-19, 109-110; 
persistence of the, 252-253. 



V 



Values, distortion of, a type of illusion, 

180-182. 
Variation in innovation, degree of 

opposition conditioned by width of, 

261-272 ; the slighter, the quicker 

its assimilation, 307-309. 
Veblem, Theory of the Leisure Class, 

quoted, 284 n. 
Vernon, Variation in Animals and 

Plants, cited, 5 n. 
Vocational persistence of executives 

and of intellectuals, Appendix. 
Volume, power of suggestion increased 

by, 141-142. 



W 



Wage plan of rewards for results pro- 
duced, 208-210. 

Wanamaker, John, quoted on sharing 
business burdens, 90. 

Wanamaker's, women's league at, 231. 

War, certain merits in, 157; art as a 
stimulus in, 164. 

Ward, A. Montgomery, quoted on 
emulation policy, 154 n., 155. 

Wardens, physique of, 25, 27, 28. 



INDEX 



349 



Wealth, as a factor in a stimulating 
social system, 37~38; imitation 
prestige in possession of, 124. 

Webb, Industrial Democracy, quoted, 
38 m 

Weight of executives, 27, 28; table 
snowing leaders ranked according 
to, 27. 

West, Ancient History, quoted, 198 n. 

Will, effect of the luminous idea on the, 
46 ff . ; value of the set task to the, 
47; and the blocked retreat, 47-48. 

Wilson, Woodrow, quoted, 190. 

Wonder, influence of personality 
through, 1 1 4-1 15. 

Work, power of, necessary to the 
leader, 16-17; power of, developed 
by work itself, 53 n. ; rules for, 53 n. 



Workers, apportioning rewards among, 
207-213; methods of instruction, 
228-232. 

Wright, article by, cited, 151. 

Wyclif, John, contemporary opinions 
of, 14, 282. 



Yawning, transmissibility of bodily 

attitudes shown by, 133. 
Y. M. C. A., physique of secretaries, 

25, 27, 28; art in campaign methods 

of "boosters," 166-167. 
Young Turks, average age among, 

267. 
Yule, G. Udny, cited on frequency 

distribution, 5 n. 



Printed in the United States of America. 



'HE following pages contain advertisements of a 
few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects 



Economics of Efficiency 

By NORRIS A. BRISCO 

Of the College of the City of New York ; Author of " Economics of Business " 

Cloth, i2mo f $1.50 

An analysis of the science of efficiency in which its 
essentials are explained and in which the methods of 
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the business man and also to make them of special inter- 
est to the student. Demands on Labor, Management 
and Plant Equipment ; Methods ; Buying of Labor ; 
Training of Men ; Habit ; Fatigue ; Hygienic Condi- 
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" The chapter on wages and wage systems will be enlighten- 
ing to many employers, hitherto content to jog along the 
beaten track." — Scientific American. 

"The work happily combines educational features with its 
readable value." — Wall Street Journal. 



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Increasing Human Efficiency in Business 

By WALTER DILL SCOTT 

Ilhtstrated, cloth, i2mo, $f.2j 

Standard Library Edition, $0.50 postage extra 

The author of this work, who is Professor of Psychology in North- 
western University, has been for a number of years engaged in the applica- 
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sults of his investigations are incorporated in the present volume. 

The author first considers the possibility of increasing human effi- 
ciency and shows that while old methods, old tools, old instruments, have 
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only factor which has withstood the change. The contention is that 
human efficiency is a variable quantity which increases and decreases 
according to law. By the application of known physical laws the tel- 
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are being and will be secured. 



"In this book one of the country's best-known practical psychologists 
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"An important contribution to the literature of business psychol- 
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NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION 

Business 
Organization and Combination 



An Analysis of the Evolution and Nature of Business Organization in the 
United States and a Tentative Solution of the Corporation and Trust Problems 

By LEWIS H. HANEY, Ph.D. 

Professor of Economics in the University of Texas. Author of " A Con- 
gressional History of Railways " and " History of Economic Thought " 

Cloth, 8vo, 523 pages, $2.00 

Dr. Haney in his treatment of business organization recognizes 
two kinds : business that is productive from the social point of view, 
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/iew. According to the social point of view, business is productive 
when it adds to the net sum of goods and services which men want ; 
that is, when the amount of food, clothes, books, automobiles, teach- 
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The usefulness of this book as a text in courses on Business Or- 
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tion of a chapter tracing the development and organization of a large 
corporation (the International Harvester Company) . Its usefulness 
as a text in the above courses and also in courses on Trusts has been 
increased by the addition of a chapter on the Sherman act and its 
interpretation. In this chapter Professor Haney gives the history of 
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criticism of recent developments in policy. 

Besides the addition of these two chapters, Professor Haney has . 
further improved the book by minor changes in the text so that it is 
now more satisfactorily adapted than ever before to classroom use. 



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The Social Problem 

A CONSTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS 

By CHARLES A. ELLWOOD, Ph.D. 

Professor of Sociology in the University of Missouri, Author of " Sociology in 
Its Psychological Aspects," " Sociology and Modern Social Problems," etc. 

Cloth, i2mo, 255 pp., $1.25 

This work is a brief analysis of the social problem in Western 
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social movement; and it is commended to progressives in 
whatever class, party, or sect they may happen to find them- 
selves. The attitude of the book is thoroughly positive and 
constructive toward all the essential values of our civilization. 

" ' The Social Problem ' by Professor Charles A. Ellwood is 
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ject is handled in a masterful way. The best books I read in 
my field ordinarily do not gain more than eighty-five or ninety 
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ninety-eight or ninety-nine per cent. 

It is not only sound in its general positions, but sound in de- 
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fine sense of the value of words, there is no duplication, and 
the author reaches his goal with the fewest possible sentences. 
I know of no book upon the social problem, which can com- 
mand so completely the endorsement of social thinkers every- 
where." — Professor Edward A. Ross of the University of 
Wisconsin, Autlwr of " The Changing Chinese,'" " Social 
Psychology," etc. 

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By EDWARD A. ROSS 

Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin 
Formerly of the University of Nebraska 

Social Psychology 

Cloth, 8vo, $1.50 

u The volume marks off for itself a very definite field of research, and 
scours the circumscribed area in the most scientific manner. . . . Pro- 
fessor Ross has laid bare the more vital social traits, good and bad, of the 
human mind in a manner calculated to awaken thought." — The New 
York Tribune. 

Social Control 

A Survey of the Foundations of Order 

Part I — The Grounds of Control 
Part II — The Means of Control 
Part III — The System of Control 

Cloth, i2mo, leather back, %i.2jj 

The author seeks to determine how far the order we see about us is due 
to influences that reach men and women from without, that is, social in- 
fluences. His thesis is that the personality freely unfolding under condi- 
tions of healthy fellowship may arrive at a goodness all its own, and that 
order is explained partly by this tendency in human nature and partly by 
the influence of social surroundings. The author's task, therefore, is first 
to separate the individual's contribution to social order from that of soci- 
ety, and second, to bring to light everything that is contained in this so* 
cial contribution. 



Foundations of Sociology 



The Scope and Task of Sociology — The Sociological Frontier of Eco- 
nomics — Social Laws — The Unit of Investigation in Sociology — Mob- 
mind — The Properties of Group-Units — -The Social Forces — The Fac- 
tors of Social Change — Recent Tendencies in Sociology — The Causes of 
Race Superiority — The Value Rank of the American People. 

The author lays a foundation for a social science that shall withstand the 
severest tests, and formulates the principal truths about society. In the 
belief that the time is past for one-sided interpretations of society, the ef- 
fort is made to group together and harmonize the valuable results of all 
the schools. 

Both the above are in " The Citizen's Library " of Economics, Politics, 
and Sociology, edited by Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of 
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